UK doctor in Gaza: ‘huge effort’ needed to give 600,000 children polio vaccine

We spoke to Dr Hareen de Silva, a British doctor from the medical aid charity UK-Med, who’s in Gaza and involved in the vaccination campaign. We began by asking him how it will work and how urgent is.

Dr Hareen de Silva: It’s very urgent. Since 1988, worldwide cases of polio have decreased over 99% – and in the Gaza Strip, it’s been polio-free for 25 years. So even one case can be detrimental. And again, children are disproportionately affected here. So we’re really concerned about children under the age of five getting it. 1 in 200 cases go on to develop acute flaccid paralysis, which could be permanent. And about 5 to 15% of any case could be fatal, with paralysis of the breathing muscles.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: What are the chances of being able to vaccinate over 600,000 children in such a short time?

Dr Hareen de Silva: It’s going to be very difficult. The WHO has coordinated to try and get 1.2 million vaccines in because we’re trying to vaccinate 640,000 next week and repeat the dose again in four weeks time. It will be a huge coordinated effort between the local health authorities here, the WHO, as well as international organisations and other UN agencies. But we can only hope and try and aim for the 95% vaccine coverage we need to make sure that this doesn’t spread and we don’t get another case of, unfortunately, a 10 month old who has become permanently paralysed.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Given hospitals have been bombed, convoys of displaced people have been bombed, and a medical supply vehicle has been bombed as well – how high are confidence levels going to be for people to come and get their vaccines?

Dr Hareen de Silva: We’re confident surrounding communities will be able to come. We’re sending out our community engagement teams to talk to our local communities, to try and get any child under the age of 10 to come in for the vaccine next week. We are based in the humanitarian zone, the UK-Med hospitals, but there are points outside of the humanitarian zones which will be doing vaccinations as well.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And how would you describe the current situation?

Dr Hareen de Silva: For the primary health care centre, which I manage, it’s just unfortunately…we’re seeing a lot of respiratory infections and skin diseases which are very much attributed to the water, sanitation, hygiene issues with toileting facilities destroyed, etc. As well as the close proximity of tents and people living together. So scabies is one thing that we’ve seen often. And impetigo, which is easily managed in the UK. You see it in nurseries, with just simple antibiotic cream, which is very difficult to get here into the country at the moment. So all of the simple things that we take for granted back in the UK are just exponentially made worse here, just because of supply chain issues and poor sanitation situation here.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And how would you describe the security of medical workers at the moment?

Dr Hareen de Silva: It’s very difficult. So a few weeks ago the UK-Med guest house where we stayed at was unfortunately hit by shelling, and we had to evacuate that house. Now all of us international staff members and the national staff that were with us, protecting, and the guards are staying with us at the type two field hospital. So we can only do what we can. Our areas are deconflicted and people know, and forces know where we are – so it’s just a matter of just following all the procedures that are set out for us – and local security policies and following them to the best of our ability.