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STORY: WHO / GAZA POLIO VACCINATION
TRT: 03:03
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 FEBRUARY 2025, GAZA
22 FEBRUARY 2025, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL, NORTH GAZA
1. Various shots, massive levels of destruction in hospital’s vicinity
2. Various shots, external, hospital grounds, newly established field hospital, WHO and partners in discussion
3. Wide shot, inside hospital, damaged corridor, WHO and partners, door with blue curtain
4. Med shot, vaccinator Hana administering polio vaccine to young boy
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hana Khalil Majeed, Vaccinator:
“This is the third campaign against polio. Of course, we found a large number of families, especially in the northern area, coming to vaccinate their children. The target group for vaccination is from the age of one day to 10 years old. Of course, we witnessed strong turnout from the people coming to vaccinate their children. At the beginning, we thought that the area would be empty, but thank God, a large number of people came from the northern area.”
6. Med shot, vaccinator Hana administering polio vaccine to young boy in green jumper
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mother of vaccinated child:
“Today I came to Kamal Adwan in the north to have my daughter get the third dose of vaccine. She received the first vaccine in Khan Younis at Al-Qarara and the second in Deir al-Balah. Today, after we returned to the north, I gave her third dose of polio vaccine. Of course, this is to protect our children from polio.”
8. Med shot, blue curtain outside vaccination room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Richard Peeperkorn, Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, World Health Organization (WHO):
“This is the first day of the polio campaign. We are here in the north of Gaza at Kamal Adwan. The campaign is organized by the Ministry of Health, WHO, UNICEF, UNWRA and partners with two main goals. First of all, to stop the transmission of the polio virus within Gaza and to prevent the spread of the polio virus outside Gaza. The target is to vaccinate more than 590,000 children all over Gaza in a campaign which will last three days, plus two catch up days. It's a massive logistical exercise with more than 1650 teams, of which 1250 mobile teams and 420 fixed sites.”
22 FEBRUARY 2025, SHEIKH RADWAN PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRE, NORTH GAZA
10. Wide shot, external of Primary Health Centre
11. Various shots, children being vaccinated for polio
The emergency polio outbreak response in the Gaza Strip is ongoing, with a mass vaccination campaign that began today (22 Feb) and will continue until 26 February 2025.
The novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) will be administered to over 591,000 children under 10 years of age to protect them from polio.
This campaign follows the recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in Gaza, signaling ongoing circulation in the environment, putting children at risk.
No additional polio cases have been reported since a ten-month-old child was paralyzed in August 2024, but the new environmental samples from Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, collected in December 2024 and January 2025, confirm poliovirus transmission.
The strain detected is genetically linked to the poliovirus detected in the Gaza Strip in July 2024.
