The World Health Organization renewed its grave concern on Tuesday about the possibility of an outbreak of the epidemic in the Gaza Strip, especially after the isolation of the second type of polio virus (polio) in sewage samples.

“I am very worried. I am very worried and it is not just polio. There could be other epidemics of infectious diseases,” said Ayadil Saparbekov, head of the WHO health emergencies team in the Palestinian territories.

“Hepatitis A was confirmed last year and now we may have polio,” he told a news conference, adding that “up to 14,000 people (from Gaza) may” need medical assistance.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus (poliovirus) that invades the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis within hours. On July 16, the Global Polio Laboratory Network isolated type 2 poliovirus derived from a vaccine strain in six environmental control samples.

Analysis of these isolated cases – conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA – shows that there are “genetic links between them” and that they are also linked to the type 2 poliovirus derived from a vaccine strain. The World Health Organization has said that the virus will spread in Egypt in 2023.

Thus, the United Nations reiterates that there is a “serious risk” of the spread of polio in the Gaza Strip and internationally “if a rapid response to this epidemic is not provided.”

“We have not yet collected human samples, due to lack of equipment and laboratory capacity to test these samples,” Saparbekov said. A team from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which will travel to Gaza next Thursday, is expected to take materials to collect human samples, which will then be sent to Jordan.

Meanwhile, WHO and its partners are assessing the extent of the polio outbreak. Saparbekov hopes recommendations will be published on Sunday, but “given the current constraints on hygiene and water sanitation in Gaza, it will be very difficult for people to follow the advice to wash their hands and drink boiled water.”

The war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7 last year due to an unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas special forces who infiltrated southern Israel, and resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, most of them civilians, according to a count conducted by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli data.

In response, Israel launched a massive air and ground assault on Gaza, killing more than 39,000 people, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.