Polio and the destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure by Mouin Rabbani

54. Tulchinsky recounts that in 1978 Israel consulted with Natan Goldblum and Joseph Melnick, two noted epidemiologists from Baylor University, to develop more effective anti-polio strategies. Their recommendation, to increase the four doses traditionally given to infants during their first year with an additional three of a different variety, was pioneered in the Gaza Strip. It proved so effective that the disease was eradicated from the territory within a few short years. Tulchinsky does not say so, but it seems likely that as with so much else the Gaza Strip here too functioned as a human laboratory for new Israeli methods. Indeed, the Goldblum-Melnick vaccination sequence was according to Tulchinsky “dubbed the Gaza system” and subsequently applied within Israel to quell a polio outbreak of its own in 1988. “As a result of this episode”, Tulchinsky wrote, “Israel adopted the Gaza system, and total eradication of polio was rapidly achieved”.   
56. It is unclear how polio has suddenly re-appeared in the Gaza Strip. What is beyond doubt is how it’s spreading. Israel has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip’s health, sanitary, water treatment, and power infrastructure, particularly since October 2023, leading to the collapse of systems that were already precarious. Contaminated water, untreated sewage, and uncollected garbage, particularly when paired with the severe overcrowding resulting from Israel’s genocidal campaign and repeated forced displacement of the civilian population, represent ideal conditions for its spread.