A 17-year-old resident of the Jerusalem area has been diagnosed with polio, the Israeli Health Ministry announced on Wednesday morning.
The poliomyelitis diagnosis in the boy, who did not receive the polio jab during routine childhood immunizations, was confirmed by the Health Ministry’s Central Virology Laboratory.
No further details were given on the condition of the Israeli teenager.
“Polio is a virus that causes childhood paralysis, which has been eradicated from many countries around the world thanks to effective and safe vaccines that have been around for decades,” the ministry said.
“No child in the State of Israel should suffer from polio in 2024. A vaccinated child is a protected child,” the statement concluded.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that is primarily spread through fecal-oral contamination, sometimes by drinking contaminated water, poor sanitation and poor control of sewage.
Some 98% of the Israeli population has received polio immunization. The virus reemerged in 2022 when a four-year-old girl from Jerusalem was diagnosed with the virus after experiencing paralysis, followed by several outbreaks of the deadly viral disease across the Jewish state.
In July, the Israel Defense Forces said it would offer polio vaccinations to soldiers fighting in Gaza after the virus was discovered in sewage there.
In December 2023, an Israeli soldier died after being infected by a dangerous type of fungus found in the soil of the coastal enclave. Around 10 additional soldiers were infected with the strain.
According to experts, these fungi were not seen in previous wars in Gaza, and the source may have been soil contaminated by sewage.
