• Borrell calls for three-day ceasefire to stop polio spread in Gaza
• The type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) was first detected in sewage samples in Gaza in July
• The disease has re-emerged after more than two decades after it was eradicated

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell calls for three-day ceasefire to stop polio spread in Gaza

The polio disease has re-emerged in Gaza more than two decades after it was eradicated.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called for an immediate three-day humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to allow the population to be vaccinated against the fast-spreading poliovirus.

“I urge an immediate 3-day humanitarian ceasefire to enable vaccination by WHO (the World Health Organisation) and UNICEF (the UN’s children fund) – independent of wider negotiations. Our humanity demands it,” Borrell said in a post on X.

The type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) was first detected in sewage samples in Gaza in July. On August 16, the enclave’s first confirmed case of polio in 25 years was detected in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby, who has since been paralysed but is said to be in a stable condition.