The UAE has immunised millions of Pakistani children with than 28.8 million polio vaccines in January and February 2015 as part of the second phase of the Emirates Polio Campaign launched under directives from President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on an initiative by His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces. The effort is part of the UAE government s 2013 pledge of Dh440 million to support global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018, said the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE-PAP) in its announcement of the results of polio immunisation drive for the first two months of the current year.
A total of 13,826,386 polio vaccine doses were given to Pakistani children aged under five years in January in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan, Sindh and the tribal provinces. In February, children in these regions were given 14,977,824 additional doses of the vaccine in February, said the UAE-PAP administration of the UAE-PAP.
A third does of the polio vaccine will be given in March to the children in the targeted Pakistani regions as part of massive immunisation drive being carried in cooperation with the Pakistan army, ministry of health and regional governments and World Health Organisation (WHO).
The UAE-PAP polio campaign used more than 10,000 teams using healthcare centres and mobile units for remote villages, refugee camps and border areas.
On 24th April 2013, one day ahead of the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi, His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pledged a donation of Dh440 million to support global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018.
It noted that Pakistan reported 306 polio cases last year, far and away the largest share of the 359 cases worldwide recorded by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organisation, WHO, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, and the United Nations Children s Fund, Unicef, and other agencies.
On 24 January, the administration of the UAE-PAP announced the launch of the second phase of the "Emirates Polio Campaign" in Pakistan, targeting 17 million children in 53 areas with around 51 million vaccination doses under the slogan, "A Healthy and Bright Future for All".
The UAE-PAP administration said that the polio vaccination campaign is being carried out on schedule and was accompanied by an educational campaign to promote awareness of the highly infectious and dangerous disease that attacks the nervous system, and can cause paralysis or death.
Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Director of the UAE-PAP, said that the success of the vaccination campaign proves that the humanitarian efforts and initiatives of the UAE under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan are remarkably effective and that the UAE is playing a pioneering role in assisting the poor and underprivileged across the in support of the UN's efforts to protect people against diseases and disasters and to provide dignified living for all.
Al Ghafli also noted the importance of the initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, for eradicating polio in Pakistan which has one of world's highest rates of polio infection.
Source: WAM