Dubai: As part of the ongoing National Polio Campaign, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has given a call to 175,000 families registered with DHA’s primary health centres to follow up on the status of polio vaccinations for all children below five years of age to administer the vaccine free of cost.
Dr Manal Taryam, CEO of the Primary Healthcare Sector at the DHA, said: “We want to ensure we reach out to families of all children under five years registered with the DHA. Therefore, we have set up a call centre at the DHA’s Nad Al Hammar centre and our health officials will go through the DHA primary health centre’s registered data base and call all families with children under five years to check the vaccination status of their children and enquire whether they have made use of this opportunity to administer the polio vaccination free of cost. Health officials will also address parents’ queries with regard to this vaccine.”
The DHA has 14 primary health-care centres and all of them are administering the polio vaccine as part of the National Polio Campaign.
The campaign is spearheaded by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with Dubai Health Authority and Health Authority Abu Dhabi. As part of the campaign the vaccine is available free of cost across all DHA primary health facilities.
Polio is an infectious disease that affects young children. It causes life-long paralysis or death and is not curable. The only way to prevent a child from getting polio is through vaccination. There are no reported cases of polio in the UAE.
