Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Beyond the Headlines
Episode: The challenges in containing a looming polio outbreak in Gaza
Description: Children’s lives in Gaza are riddled with uncertainty. They don’t know when the next bomb will fall, where their next meal will come from or even if their families and friends are still alive.
Now, another variable poses a grave risk to Gaza’s children: polio. The first case was confirmed after a 10-month-old baby tested positive for the virus in mid-August. At least two others are suspected to have been infected.
Poliovirus can be extremely dangerous, affecting nerve function and causing irreversible paralysis. Since the war began last October, inoculations have fallen in Gaz...