The Gazan extermination campaign by Israel and the United States continues against the Arab population of the Gaza Strip, killing 79 yesterday and dozens today. The total number of casualties is anticipated to be between 150,000 and 350,000 persons including those persons buried in the rubble, according to biostatisticians tracking the facts in Gaza from Singapore.
Mid-East Tolerance for U.S. / Israel genocide in Gaza now at Zero
Fighting between forces in Lebanon and Israel is heading for a new crescendo and the people of Jordan are in the streets demanding that Amman, Jordan remove all relations with Israel and cancel the peace agreements with the “vile leadership” of that nation.
Jordanians near the Israeli embassy in Amman, protesting Israel’s latest deadly incursion into the occupied West Bank. Protesters in other locations of Amman, Jordan, took to the streets in support of Palestinians, and Mr. Abu Shuja, the commander of Tulkaram Brigade, who was murdered by Israeli assassins. Photo credit: x.com. Art, cropping, enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to achieve an agreement with Israel for a few hours per day in three small areas for inoculating the diminishing child population of Gaza against polio virus.
In the hours between 8:00am and 3:00pm local time, the guns and bombs are supposed to go silent in three defined areas of the Palestinian territory of Gaza, on three consecutive days, starting 1 September 2024, according to Rip Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territories who convened a press conference on Thursday.
“The population extermination campaign will continue in other regions and in the three select regions after this time and the bombs will continue to fall in the other regions outside the agreed places where vaccinations will take place,” explained Behar Abbasi who is heading a team of women’s health care workers in Gaza and who is very cynical about the Israeli behaviour in the matter.
“Polio is spreading in Gaza. We don’t have a quantum, but we know it is in the wastewater and we know of some infected patients. There is no cure for polio. We must prevent infection,” explained RINJ Foundation medical director.
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease that is caused when a person is infected by the polio virus that invades the nervous system.
Poliomyelitis can cause paralysis and even death.
There are 3 types of the polio virus – type 1, type 2, and type 3.
The World Health Organization states that the polio virus predominantly affects children under five who are not fully vaccinated, but it can also impact adolescents and adults. The virus is ingested through contaminated food or water and replicates in the intestines, shedding through feces.
Polio symptoms include fever, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, neck stiffness, limb pain, and limb weakness. The singular and sudden limb weakness in children under 15 necessitates immediate notification of health authorities.
Warning: Polio has no cure.
There are two polio vaccines: Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV).
OPV, administered orally, doesn’t require a health professional to administer. Injection requires a health professional. OPV remains the WHO primary defense against polio.
Trivalent OPV and IPV protect against all three poliovirus types, while Bivalent OPV targets only types 1 and 3. IPV, administered by injection, complements OPV in some countries to boost immunity. Immunization schedules vary by country, with either OPV, IPV, or both. By 2016, all countries were expected to introduce at least one IPV dose.
RINJ Foundation medical practitiners have been vaccinating newborns in Gaza since 2014 but during the crisis which began on 7 October 2023, according to Dr. Nassima al Amouri during a brief visit to the nurses training center in the Philippines, “the number of children we deliver and care for in Gaza with refrigerated vaccines which we bring in through Jordan, is extremely tiny compared to the overall need,” she stated.
“This applies to our trivalent polio vaccines as well which must be stored at 2°C to 8°C (which is 36°F-46°F). In war zones that is not always possible.
“We do not use oral vaccines against poliomyelitis because our policies follow U.S. and Canadian medical standards. We approach vaccination as a clinical care procedure by medical professionals and not as an emergency care protocol. In the clinical role we accept zero risk at every opportunity because clinical care must be at the best possible standard of care, added the RINJ Foundation medical director.
“Just like Canada and the United States, the inactivated trivalent polio vaccine (IPV) has been our standard. This change was made before our time in Y2K to eliminate the risk of vaccine-derived poliovirus, which rarely but can occur with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV). The IPV is administered as part of our routine immunization schedules for infants, children, and as an adjunct medical precaution for some adults who are at increased risk of exposure to poliovirus,” said Dr. Nassima, which is how patients address her, by her first name.
Feminine-Perspective:
“I recommend that all parents or in the case of the tens of thousands of orphans, their caregivers have their children in Gaza vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine as soon as possible. I have no worries about using the OPV in Gaza because oral vaccine is safe and because of the extreme emergency situation where infection by polio virus of some children is happening right now and the spread of this disease must be stopped, now,” said Dr. Nassima.
Polio risk is extreme in Gaza.
“I also suggest that the risk of this decision is zero compared to the risk of a child becoming sick with poliomyelitis. We recommend that no child be excluded from OPV dosing against polio in Gaza, and we make this recommendation without any hesitation. Risk of environmentally induced infection in Gaza is the highest anywhere in the world right now. I would add that an unvaccinated child under five is likely to acquire the disease, so get your precious little children fully vaccinated to remove this risk,” Dr. Nassima emphasized.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the ‘pauses’ are set to begin on September 1. WHO teams are taking the next 48 hours to implement logistics for the rollout of the polio vaccination campaign. Already some hitches have been encountered, reports Behar Abbasi.
Slaughters in West Bank rile UN Secretary General
The UN Secretary-General on 28 August 2024, expressed deep concern over recent events in the occupied West Bank, including the initiation of extensive military operations by Israel in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, marked by air strikes that have led to casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. UN Secretary-General António Guterres vehemently condemns the loss of life, which includes many children.
Secretary-General António Guterres demands an immediate halt to these operations.
UNSC Met Thursday
China eloquently but with force and feeling slammed down on Israel at the UN Security Council meeting, concluding, “We must never allow the same humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza to happen in the West Bank, which will turn the West Bank into another hell on Earth.”
The UN Security Council convened this emergency session in New York to address recent events in the Middle East, following a request by the United Kingdom.
Joyce Msuya, the interim leader of the UN’s humanitarian branch OCHA, informed ambassadors that humanitarian workers are tirelessly striving to halt the polio outbreak in the region, which has seen its first case in a quarter of a century emerge recently and others have followed.
Mike Ryan of the WHO informed the UN Security Council that the polio campaign requires a “significant change” in the entire aid delivery process in Gaza, necessitating a “much larger scale, a much faster pace, and no hindrances.”
