Statement
Humanitarian access improves quality of polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip
28 February 2025, Jerusalem/Amman/Geneva – A five-day mass polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip concluded on Wednesday, reaching nearly 603 000 children under 10 years of age with novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) following comprehensive, simultaneous access to all five governorates during the ongoin...
Statement
Mass polio vaccination campaign to continue in the Gaza Strip
19 February 2025, Jerusalem/Amman/Geneva – The emergency polio outbreak response in the Gaza Strip is continuing, with a mass vaccination campaign scheduled from 22 to 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 ...
News note
Second round of polio campaign in Gaza completed amid ongoing conflict and attacks: UNICEF and WHO
EAST JERUSALEM/AMMAN/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 6 November 2024 - The second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip was completed yesterday, with an overall 556,774 children under the age of ten being vaccinated with a second dose of polio vaccine, and 448,425 children between two- and ten-years-old recei...
Statement
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on a deadly weekend of attacks in North Gaza
NEW YORK, 2 November 2024 – “This has already been a deadly weekend of attacks in North Gaza. In the past 48 hours alone, over 50 children have reportedly been killed in Jabalia, where strikes leveled two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people. “And this morning, the personal vehicle of a UNICEF staff...
Statement
Polio vaccination campaign to resume in northern Gaza
EAST JERUSALEM/AMMAN/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 1 November 2024 - “A third phase of the polio vaccination campaign is set to begin tomorrow in part of the northern Gaza Strip after being postponed from 23 October 2024 due to lack of access and assured, comprehensive humanitarian pauses, intense bombardment, and mass evacuat...
Press release
85 per cent of children affected by polio in 2023 lived in fragile and conflict-affected countries
NEW YORK, 24 October 2024 — Of the 541 children affected by polio globally in 2023, 85 per cent live in the 31 fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable countries, according to a new UNICEF analysis on World Polio Day. Polio cases in these settings have more than doubled in the past five years, while routine chil...
Remarks
Geneva Palais briefing note on the announcement of the second round of polio vaccination in the Gaza Strip
EAST JERUSALEM / GENEVA, 11 October 2024 - "I wanted to emphasize the logistical challenges that such a vaccination campaign represents. The first round successfully rolled out in September presented humanitarian workers with overwhelming difficulties, including operating amid devastated infrastructure. "For exam...
Press release
Around 560 000 children vaccinated in first round of polio campaign in Gaza
Jerusalem/Amman/Geneva, 13 September 2024 - Around 560 000 children under ten years old were vaccinated against polio during the first round of an emergency vaccination campaign conducted in three phases from 1-12 September 2024 in the Gaza Strip. The 12-day campaign provided novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2...
Statement
Statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr, on the Completion of the First Phase of the Polio Vaccination Campaign in the Gaza Strip
AMMAN, 04 SEPTEMBER 2024 – “The past three days have brought a rare bright spot amid the disastrous conflict in the Gaza Strip. “After almost a year of families experiencing horrors no man, woman or child should ever have to endure, this week we saw what can be achieved with simply, will. “For at least a quarter o...
News note
Humanitarian pauses vital for critical polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM/CAIRO/AMMAN, 16 August 2024 – Two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are expected to be launched at the end of August and September 2024 across the Gaza Strip to prevent the spread of circulating variant type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2). WHO and UNICEF request all parties to the conflict to implement hum...
Press release
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pledges US $500 million to protect children around the world from polio and end the disease for good
RIYADH, 28 APRIL 2024 - Today, at the first-ever World Economic Forum (WEF) Special Meeting hosted in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has pledged US $500 million over the next five years to support the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). This announcement marks a significant increase in funding for the global effort to…
Press release
800,000 children to be vaccinated against measles and polio across earthquake-stricken northwest Syria
CAIRO/AMMAN, 7 April 2023 – A measles and polio vaccination campaign will be launched tomorrow across northwest Syria to protect some 800,000 children under five years from the two potentially deadly but preventable diseases. The vaccination drive, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Vaccine Alli...