In a tragic turn of events, a clinic in Gaza was bombed during ‘vaccination day’ in early March, resulting in the death of 12 children who were receiving their inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) at the age of 60 days.
“We don’t use oral doses,” explained the Gaza regional director.
Polio spread from Gaza could cripple much of Israel, Palestine and Egypt. Then the Middle East. Next the world in regions with infrastructure fails due to floods and societal breakdowns caused by war and catastrophic weather phenomena, maybe forest fires.
Poliomyelitis has no cure, and the mortality rates of polio can be unpredictable. It’s uncertain who may experience mild symptoms, limb paralysis, severe paralysis, or death.
“Vaccination day was once a month on the first Thursday,” explains Behar Abbasi from Gaza. Her original report said she was contacted by nurse Ai’sha on the night of Thursday 7 March 2024 and learned Ai’sha had been contacted by an hysterical co-parent to say that a child and mother were missing and that others in his community were saying the same thing about their family members who had been expected back ‘home’ early afternoon.
“Shortly after that,” Behar said today, “we learned that Dr. Buni’s clinic had been bombed and the families of 12 infants attending for vaccinations had been killed. We polled the rescue people we knew then and found a civil rescue person in central Gaza who told us the small clinic was hit by a five-hundred-pound bomb and there were no survivors—the place was a blood bath of torn body parts intermingled through the rubble. I vomited wretchedly in the next few minutes, and then went into shock as I was already fatigued by overwork and intense bombings. I was better by nightfall, but I went out of service that day. Within half an hour of the news Ai’sha was on her way north with a team while I was falling apart. I have worked with Dr. B since 2012. This news broke me. We were very close, and this news was more than I could handle from these murdering evil men.”
A photomicrograph of the lumbar spinal cord depicting an infarct due to Polio Type III surrounding the anterior spinal artery. Photo credit: CDC Public Health Image Library
Photo is enlarged from original. Art, enlargement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
“The significant issue is that IPV inoculations were stopped in the clinics’ comunities and the collected data were effectively erased by killing that clinic with an overkill five-hundred-pound bomb. Madness! There were no survivors—no records found. Nothing remained. It took over a month to identify most remains. Getting news to families around the world and trying to ship remains might be the worst experience any of us had lived through,” says nursing team leader Ai’sha.
What is significant about this event according to Dr. Nassima al Amouri, regional medical director for The RINJ Foundation, is that the north clinic established long ago by “Dr. Buni”—as her patients know her across the Middle East—were getting IPV doses from the supplies in Syria smuggled via Jordan and the team members were calling out to the local community to not delay the two month and subsequent inoculations.
Additionally, combination vaccines were on hand for the youngest, the doctor explained. Each dose resulted in the patient’s parent being given one of four colors of 4cm plastic squares which indicate which of the four dose levels the child had received: 2mos/4mos/6-18mos/4-6yrs.
Dr. Nassima explained that returning children were automatically given the correct dose and a replacement coloured square. This multilingual system was created in Syria during past wars and worked well, she said.
“For each little one the parent had to submit their recent level square which was filed to their name thus creating a simple currency record without computers and ledgers in a war zone,” explained the good doctor.
She adds that parents in Gaza were also receiving vaccinations, primarily the ‘lifetime booster’, due to the prevalent belief that everyone in the area is at high risk. Medical workers received these ‘lifetime boosters’ towards the end of last year. Parents who were uncertain about their level of inoculation, or those who were aware, were offered the continuation of treatment.
According to USA provider of the vaccine with CDC concurrence:
Adults: first dose at any time / second dose 1 to 2 mos. later / third dose 6 to 12 mos. later. This schedule must be maintained. High risk persons should also be given a ‘lifetime booster’ following this treatment. (Check with your own healthcare provider.)
“Our fear was that the immunity level of so many malnourished children was so low, serious outcomes would be a higher percentile than normal if an outbreak occurred,” said Nassima as she hurried through the area to get to a known patient who had symptoms reportedly like early flaccid paralysis.
Dr. Nassima has been investigating the possibility of restarting the clinic against the advice of the security director who says a new clinic will also be bombed by the Americans and Israelis.
Hence, “volunteers to do this work were at zero for the past three months while remains were under study for identification and return to families where possible. So please see what can be done to fix this,..” urged Dr. al Amouri with a deep sigh.
By the end of the day, four volunteers from the Central Gaza team had agreed to alter their plans. The search was on for a doctor to head the team. In the wake of Bonnie’s tragic death, the remaining Medical Director, Nassima al Amouri, has been instructed to return to Syria, as she is currently not authorized for any level of risk beyond staying at home. She has consented to this directive.
“Based on substantial evidence, we concluded that a non-paralytic form of poliomyelitis was spreading, presenting only minor symptoms. As of our last discussion, Dr. B was not aware of any spinal cases, but she was actively investigating whether any children in the community showed signs suggestive of a variant affecting the central nervous system, which is challenging to detect in the initial six months or so.
“This is why we bumped up the inoculation project for the infants our midwives helped deliver and for any child who could get to that clinic during the genocide. Until last October, children were well inoculated thanks to the World Health Organization but second, third or fourth doses have been missed for many children and newborns are at extreme risk. I cannot stress this enough. With all that is going on it was a difficult investigation. This information is exclusive to north Gaza which has been abandoned by most service providers, and for which no known child medical records exist, except what parents might have kept in their bombed-out homes. This is an unspeakable catastrophe the foul men in Washington and Tel Aviv have created,” exclaimed Dr. al Amouri. [We both almost silently sobbed.]
Dr. Harris and Dr. Poon both of the CSPAD.org subsidiary unit, support 100% Dr. al Amouri’s conclusions stressing the extreme urgency and saying in a memo, “the potential impact of the polio outbreak in Gaza is concerning, with the detection of the virus in sewage samples indicating a high risk of spread among the unvaccinated population. The situation is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, which has severely damaged infrastructure and healthcare services, increasing the vulnerability of the population to such outbreaks. Our health experts are urgently calling for immediate action to prevent a catastrophic health crisis in Gaza and spreading. To the Israelis we say get the F out of Gaza and see your health care provider immediately.”
“Five children out of 1,000 infected kids become paralytic. Of these children, as many as 10% die early as the CNS fails their breathing processes, so Micheal, I need this warning put out there that the risk is widespread. The soldiers must get out of Gaza now and the dozen remaining hospitals with reasonable function must be given at least 1,500,000 doses including massive numbers of ‘lifetime boosters’ for adults, spread across the remaining months of this year. And if we must train 16-year-olds to inoculate then that’s what we must do. I am serious. This could impact the entire Middle East and then maybe the world. Cholera and Hepatitis vaccines are also needed.
“Please get this message out there. I heard the WHO is doing the same,” the RINJ Foundation medical director urged.
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