With ISIS pushed out of some cities and towns in Syria, humanitarian organizations are hoping to reinstate vital healthcare for the thousands of Syrians who stayed, including over 1 million children.
Last week, the United Nations completed its first round of polio vaccinations following a polio outbreak in Deir el-Zour in June. This marks the second time in less than a decade that the city suffered from a polio outbreak.
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Since the campaign began in late July, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and other aid organizations have vaccinated 355,000 children under 5 years of age in the country's Deir el-Zour and Raqqa provinces, according to ABC News.
Working on the ground in Syria, UNICEF provided vaccines and equipment, while the WHO trained volunteers and transported the vaccines to two governances, Deir el-Zour and Raqqa.
The organizations have started a vaccination campaign that will target 120,000 more children under 5 years old in areas retaken from ISIS in the past year.
Under ISIS control for over two years, families in Syrian cities had no access to health services. But now that the extremist group has been pushed out of the city of Raqqa, families will have the opportunity to protect the health of their children.
“We hope these campaigns continue. We have not vaccinated our children for two years,” Abdullah Rahel, a Raqqa resident, told Voices of America.
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Prior to the civil war, Syria was polio-free. Since the start of the war, the rate of children receiving polio vaccinations dropped from over 80% in 2011 to 40% today, according to UNICEF.
Polio, a viral disease spread through person-to-person contact or by ingestion of food or drink contaminated by an infected person’s feces, can result in permanent paralysis of one’s legs, arms, or both, and even in death.
Some people with polio exhibit no symptoms or develop symptoms later in life, according to the Center for Disease Control.
As of August 18, 33 children under 5-years-old in Syria old have been paralyzed, according to Elizabeth Hoff, WHO’s Representative in Syria.
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Officials say that more vaccines will be needed to prevent an outbreak of disease in eastern Syria.
“There is also a limited outbreak of malaria due to dirty water and the movement of displaced civilians,” Hamud Shekh Omar, deputy head of the Raqqa Health Department, told Voices of America.
Conflict, which has raged in Syria since 2011, has put the efforts of the vaccination campaign on pause in some cities. Back in June, UNICEF and the WHO were forced to temporarily halt efforts to vaccinate children in Idleb after repeated attacks on healthcare centers and medical personnel in the city.
“Since the beginning of the year, there have been reports of attacks on 17 health care facilities across Syria. Only one third of hospitals currently function in the country,” UNICEF and WHO wrote in a joint statement in June.
While the conflict in Syria is ongoing, the WHO and UNICEF have called on both sides to allow vaccinators full access to children in need.