A first case of polio has occurred in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian reports.

The infected individual is said to be an unvaccinated, 10-month-old infant in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the area, the Health Ministry in Ramallah announced on Friday.

Tests in the Jordanian capital, Amman, have reportedly confirmed this, the ministry said.

UN Secretary General António Guterres had earlier called for a pause in hostilities in the isolated and largely destroyed coastal strip to allow for the polio vaccination of hundreds of thousands of children.

The World Health Organisation and the UN children’s agency UNICEF have pushed for a seven-day ceasefire for this purpose.

After the discovery of polio viruses in the sewage of the Gaza Strip in July, the UN plans mass vaccinations against polio.

At the end of August and in September, more than 640,000 children up to the age of 10 are to be protected against the virus in two vaccination rounds, the WHO announced in Geneva.

The UN health agency reported earlier that three children in the Gaza Strip are suspected of having acute paralysis symptoms typical of polio.

Polio is a contagious infectious disease that can cause permanent paralysis and death, especially in young children.

The virus is often spread through contaminated water.

There is currently no cure.

(dpa/NAN)