Upon the directives of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, (May God protect him) to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the friendly people of Pakistan, and implementing the initiative of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio globally, the administration of the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE PAP) announced launching of the second phase of "EMIRATES POLIO CAMPAIGN" in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan targeting 17 million children, around 51 million vaccination dose under the slogan "HEALTHY AND BRIGHT FUTURE FOR ALL".
The administration of the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE PAP) pointed out that the EMIRATES POLIO CAMPAIGN for polio eradication is a true interpretation of His Highness the UAE President's directives to boost efforts in support of health awareness plans in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, control epidemics, put an end to the negative health implications on the children in the affected areas. The campaign is, moreover, emblematic of UAE's humanitarian commitment to helping the poor nations, develop human development programmes and focus attention on the children in need of preventive health care.
His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, earlier made a personal AED 440 million (US$ 120M) contribution in support of the global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018 with particular emphasis on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His Highness noted that saving children from curable diseases is a great humanitarian enterprise that can be only done by teamwork and collaborative efforts. His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed said that the UAE, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, (May Allah protect him), is always seeking international partnerships to sort out these sensitive global issues.
This is the second contribution by His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed to make vaccinations and serums available to all children of the world. In 2011, His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a strategic partnership offering a $100 million contribution –on 50/50 basis- to purchase and deliver vaccinations to the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Director of the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE PAP) pointed out that the launch of the second phase of the Emirates vaccination campaign comes an investment breakthrough achieved by the campaign and the culmination of practical success in grafting 13,000,283 thousand and 701 Pakistani children against polio in the first phase.
Al Ghafli referred to the extraordinary role and the particular importance of "EMIRATES POLIO CAMPAIGN" in supporting the global initiative endorsed by the General Assembly of the World Health to eradicate polio by the end of 2018 and to support the national emergency plan launched by the Pakistani government to eliminate the polio virus, where the campaign include a geographical coverage of 53 area, 15 of them in the territory of the region's tribal areas and 25 district in the districts Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 12 regions in the province of Balochistan, as well as Karachi district in Sindh province, and the field's efforts to vaccination teams will include application of a plan to give three consecutive vaccination doses for 17 million children a plan to give the three vaccination doses in a row to 17 million children, through the implementation of 282 fixed and mobile vaccination campaign during the months of January, February and March of 2015.
Al Ghafli said that the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE PAP) completed all the preparations for the implementation of EMIRATES POLIO CAMPAIGN in various Pakistani regions, where it began the implementation of an advertising campaign in various media to raise the population awareness of the seriousness of the polio epidemic and encourage them to receive vaccination team and cooperation with them, and it will also have direct supervision to follow up on the implementation of the campaign in various cities and villages, and at all dedicated centres for vaccination, pointing out that the UAE vaccination campaign will be carried out in cooperation with the Pakistani military leadership and the Ministry of Health of Pakistan and ministries of health in the provincial governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and under the supervision and participation of medical staff specialist of those authorities.
Al Ghafli extended his thanks and appreciation to President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and to His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces on their directives and their initiative to launch this humanitarian initiative to protect Pakistanis children from epidemics of dangerous diseases that threaten their health and safety and well-being, which is record a new addition to the permanent humanitarian initiatives of our leadership to help the world's children and to protect them, as well as to ensure a bright future for them.
He also expressed his thanks and deepest appreciation to the Government of Pakistan, Pakistani Army, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF organisation, representatives of provincial vaccination committee, field teams and to all those who planned, prepared and executed the UAE polio eradication campaign.
It is worth mentioning that the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports indicated the seriousness of the increase in the number of cases detected in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 2014, where 303 child affected by epidemic of polio, it is the highest number of cases of the disease in a decade, as the total number of cases recorded at the global level reached 339 case, where about 90% of children who fell victim to polio through 2014 are Pakistanis children.
The polio is a highly contagious viral disease attacks the nervous system, and most people exposed to the disease are children under the age of five, and a child out of every 200-400 children affected by polio exposed to paralysis or death, where according to government reports and international organisations that lack of health awareness about the dangers of disease and erroneous beliefs hinder the campaigns of eradication it.
The 2013 Global Vaccine Summit held in Abu Dhabi announced a five-year ( 2013-2018) strategic plan to wipe out polio which will cost $5.5 billion, where a scientific study estimated that efforts of the global initiative to eradicate polio could save as much as $ 40 to 50 billion dollars.
Source: WAM