The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Strip announced on Thursday evening that tests were conducted for sewage samples in coordination with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the results showed the presence of the virus that causes polio.
The ministry explained, in a press statement, that the presence of the virus that causes polio in the sewage that collects and runs between the tents of the displaced, and in the places where the population is, as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure represents a new health disaster, as the presence of severe congestion with the scarcity of available water and its pollution with sewage and the accumulation of tons of garbage and preventing the occupation to enter hygiene materials, which constitutes a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.
It warned that monitoring the polio virus portends a real health catastrophe and puts thousands of people at risk of polio.
The Ministry of Health called for an immediate cessation of Israeli aggression, the provision of usable water, the repair of sewage lines and an end to the overcrowding of the population in places of displacement.
