UN News Today 01 November 2024 |

Amid bombardment in Gaza, UN aid teams resume polio vaccinations in north

Aid teams are prepared to enter northern Gaza at the weekend to resume a mass polio vaccination campaign, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Friday.

Speaking to UN News from middle Gaza, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge described increasingly dire conditions in the enclave, more than a year since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war.

“Things are really intensifying here. The desperation is just everywhere,” she said. “Already my colleagues I’ve been speaking to, they just don’t know what to do anymore, they don’t know where to go, you might hear behind me now, there are continued bombardments going on.”

UNRWA’s efforts to help Gaza’s most vulnerable communities have continued as Israeli legislation passed this week threatens to shut it down. The move has been condemned by UN agencies and beyond, as supporters of the agency have reiterated its unique role across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The polio vaccination campaign in Gaza’s north – which is being coordinated by UNRWA, the WHO and UNICEF, aims to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old. But the UN health agency warned on Friday that reaching all children was “now unlikely” owing to access constraints.

Lebanon war sees 50,000 displaced in a matter of days: UNOCHA

To Lebanon, where an estimated 50,000 people have been forced to flee the eastern city of Baalbek in a matter of days, after a new Israel displacement order, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Friday.

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said that the newly displaced had left Baalbek and mostly headed north.

Many had to spend the night in their vehicles, he said, adding that aid teams “are working to access civilians who remain in hard-to-reach areas”.

Fifteen convoys have been mobilized to reach areas in Tyre, Hasbaya, Marjayoun and Baalbek, the OCHA spokesperson said, although two aid convoys to Baalbek had to be cancelled because of the deteriorating security situation.

Staying with Lebanon, the UN health agency has condemned ongoing attacks on healthcare in the country.

World Health Organization spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris said that there have been 55 verified attacks to date, but the Lebanon Ministry of Health has reported “much higher numbers”.

“Many workers have been killed or injured while off duty, and this matters because the health systems are already overstretched, health workers are already overworked and displaced. So, we are continuing to lose health workers at the very time when they are needed most.”

Mpox update: 47 countries have now confirmed infections, says UN health agency

Mpox has now been confirmed in 47 countries, while 10 countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo are on high alert for the new highly-infectious strain known as clade 1b, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

In an update, Dr Michel Yao, WHO incident manager for mpox, said that targeted vaccination has begun in affected countries to protect health workers and other at- risk individuals.

Larger scale vaccination will also be possible as more doses become available, the WHO medic said, as he underscored the intensive efforts already underway to scale up community engagement, diagnosis, clinical care, along with other infection prevention and control measures.

But he said that more needed to be done to help the most affected countries which remain poorly equipped to respond to the threat of mpox.

DR Congo, for example, faces conflict, cholera, malnutrition, measles and malaria, among other challenges, Dr Yao said, as he underlined the importance of putting an effective pandemic treaty in place to prevent the spread of new health threats like mpox.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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