WHO chief : Thousands of children in Gaza at risk from polio infections

The director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that "it is only a matter of time" before the thousands of children in Gaza are infected with polio.

“The detection of polio in Gaza is another reminder of the dire conditions the population is facing,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, adding that the continuing conflict impedes efforts to identify and respond to preventable diseases like polio.

The Gaza health ministry declared the territory a "polio epidemic zone" due to the discovery of the virus in wastewater and sewage samples, despite the disease being eradicated in Palestine years ago.

Polio is a highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis of the limbs.