Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Friday, following announcements from both the Israel and Gaza health ministries.

Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was found in samples taken on June 23 from sites in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

Public health authorities expressed grave concerns about the findings, which, though no cases have yet been discovered, raise the possibility of an outbreak of polio, a highly infectious disease that often causes paralysis and can be fatal.

“Detecting the virus that causes polio in wastewater heralds a real health disaster and exposes thousands of residents to the risk of contracting polio,” Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement.

Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician, told Al Jazeera the presence of the poliovirus was a “ticking time bomb,” especially given the lack of ability to isolate and care for people who contract the disease.

Haj-Hassan warned that it would be “catastrophic” if the disease spread among healthcare workers, given that the medical system has already been “annihilated by direct targeting, by abductions of healthcare workers, by [the] killing of healthcare workers.”

Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel........

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