591,000 Children Receiving Novel Polio Vaccine

The continued detection of poliovirus in wastewater in 2025 signals the ongoing risk to children in the Gaza Strip. The virus poses a severe risk to children with low or no immunity throughout the region.

As poliovirus is found to remain in the environment, additional vaccination efforts are needed to strengthen population immunity.

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a third polio vaccination campaign to protect more children from this debilitating disease.

As of February 19, 2025, the WHO confirmed that over 591,000 children under 10 will receive the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) in late February to protect them from polio.

Two previous vaccination rounds in the Gaza Strip were conducted in September and October 2024, and they reached over 95% of the target.

According to the WHO and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the nOPV2 vaccine, which has been 'triple-locked' using genetic engineering to prevent it from becoming harmful and producing a mutation, has been deployed over 1 billion times over the last few years.

To alert international travelers to this polio risk, the U.S. CDC updated its Level 2 Practice Enhanced Precautions, Global Polio Advisory, on January 14, 2025. The CDC says that before any trip to known poliovirus areas, you should ensure you are up to date on your polio vaccines.

In the United States, the single-antigen inactivated poliovirus vaccine has been available at clinics and pharmacies since 2000.