Second round of Gaza polio vaccination 'more complicated': UN

Geneva: A campaign starting next week to give hundreds of thousands of children in war stricken Gaza the necessary second dose of polio vaccine will b...

Geneva: A campaign starting next week to give hundreds of thousands of children in war-stricken Gaza the necessary second dose of polio vaccine will be "more complicated" than the first round, the UN said Friday.

The United Nations agencies for health and for children said they were gearing up to start providing follow-up doses to some 591,700 children under the age of 10 across Gaza from Monday.

That follows a first vaccination round implemented from September 1 to 12, which Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative for the Palestinian territories, hailed Friday as "a massive achievement".

The vaccination campaign began after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years was reported in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Like the last round, the upcoming campaign will take part in three phases, aided by localised "humanitarian pauses" in fighting: first in central Gaza, then in the south and finally in the hardest-to reach north of the territory.