RAMALLAH – Nancy Fawzi, Director General of the Ramallah Health Directorate, called on all world countries and international institutions to intervene to stop targeting health facilities and infrastructure in order to be able to combat epidemics, including polio in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with Cairo News Channel Sunday, Fawzi said destroying sewage networks and the health system in Gaza must come to an end so that health teams can combat polio which is transmitted to children through polluted water accumulated inside the tents of the displaced.
She said the polio vaccination campaign, that began few hours ago in a number of Gaza governorates, is scheduled to last for four days but she warned that without safe sanitation, personal hygiene and keeping safe distance in displacement areas, it cannot be completely eliminated.
The Palestinian official warned of any Israeli military operation targeting vaccination centers in the Gaza Strip, underling the need to build the health system and infrastructure of sanitation facilities to stop the spread of epidemics in general and polio in particular in Gaza.
She warned of the spread of epidemics and diseases inside the tents of the displaced, including skin diseases, as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure of sanitation facilities, the leakage of contaminated water inside the tents and the lack of personal hygiene.
She said there is ongoing coordination between the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and the UNRWA to limit the spread of these epidemics in Gaza.
She strongly condemned the Israeli targeting of international institutions operating in the humanitarian field, saying the Palestinian Health Ministry is closely following up the current polio vaccination campaign which has so far witnessed a high turnout by citizens in Gaza.
To render the campaign a success, the Health Directorate provides mobile field teams in a number of areas in the Strip to help citizens being vaccinated without the need to head for health centers for fear of any Israeli violation during the three-day humanitarian pause.
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