The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that no cases of polio have been detected so far in the Gaza Strip after the virus was found in sewage samples, AFP reports.

On Tuesday, the Global Polio Laboratory Network isolated vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in six environmental surveillance samples collected on June 23, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

The Israeli health ministry said it had made similar findings.

“This finding is extremely concerning,” said Lindmeier, “and was sadly anticipated as the entire population of Gaza has been deprived of important public health interventions aimed at preventing and controlling the spread of diseases for over nine months” since the Gaza fighting began.

“The virus has been isolated from the environment only at this time,” Lindmeier stressed, adding there had been “no polio cases detected so far”.

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