Over 20.6 million children in Pakistan have been inoculated against polio as part of the Emirates Polio Campaign, according to the Dubai-based daily, Gulf News. The campaign is part of the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme. Polio cases in Pakistan have recorded sharp decline of 71 per cent from 82 in the corresponding period last year to 24 cases this year due to the massive and successful campaign by the UAE, said a top official.

The UAE has immunised more than 20.6 million Pakistani children against polio with nearly 87 million vaccines administered as part of the Emirates Polio Campaign till May this year, said Abdullah Khalifa Al Gafli, Director of UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE-PAP) .

The polio campaign was launched in Pakistan under the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on an initiative by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio in Pakistan.

The campaign comes as a translation of Sheikh Khalifa's instructions to step up health-care programmes in the affected areas of Pakistan and is part of a Dh440 million pledge by Sheikh Mohamed to support global efforts in eradicating polio by 2018, with a specific contribution towards Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Al Ghafli said that the UAE's polio campaign in Pakistan has been very successful. The campaign, he said, was aimed to provide humanitarian an development aid, support health sector and its preventive programmes.

Al Gafli added the polio campaign under the slogan, ‘A Healthy and Bright Future for All', is reaching children in areas that were previously inaccessible to vaccinators. The campaign is also working with community leaders to improve confidence in the vaccination programme The UAE-PAP programme used 123,487 teams, 3,205 doctors, 12,765 supervisors and 21,116 security men, using health-care centres and mobile units for remote villages, refugee camps and border areas, covering 49 per cent of Pakistan's area and achieving 98.7 per cent success, Al Gafli said in his recent presentation about polio campaign.

Al Gafli added that the UAE has also implemented 163 development projects at a cost of US$340 million.

Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, who is heading the campaign and focal person for polio eradication in Pakistan, said that there has been a major turnaround in the polio situation in Pakistan as "the armed forces have helped us reclaim areas that were earlier inaccessible."

"The UAE has played a major role in funding these operations and as a consequence of this and through a heightened level of political commitment we have successfully tackled polio," she added.

With improved monitoring and coordination, she said, "there has been a sharp rise in campaign coverage and a dip in the number of reported cases."

"Thanks to the concerted efforts and through the help of the UAE, all agencies of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are now accessible to health workers and polio vaccination is in full swing."

"Most of the restive and security compromised areas of the country have been successfully targeted through special protected polio campaigns with innovative strategies including reducing the campaign to one day and by cordoning off areas to provide a safe environment for vaccinators," she concluded.

The campaign was launched after the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports had indicated the seriousness of the increase in the number of cases detected in Pakistan in 2014, where 303 child were affected by polio. It was the highest number of cases of the disease in a decade, as the total number of cases recorded at the global level reached 339 cases, where about 90 per cent of children who fell victim to polio through 2014 are Pakistani children.
Source: WAM