Abu Dhabi: The UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UPAP) has announced the start of the second phase of the UAE vaccination campaign against polio, which is targeting 17 million children in Pakistan and administering 51 million doses of vaccine.
The campaign is being implemented under the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and in line with the initiative of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio worldwide.
The programme said the campaign comes as a translation of Shaikh Khalifa’s instructions to step up health-care programmes in the affected areas of Pakistan and is part of a Dh440 million pledge by Shaikh Mohammad to support global efforts in eradicating polio by 2018, with a specific contribution towards Afghanistan and Pakistan.
UPAP Director Abdullah Khalifa Al Gafli said the vaccination campaign has been a huge success in its first phase, vaccinating 13 million Pakistani children. The UAE has launched the second phase of its polio campaign to vaccinate 17 million children in Pakistan with the slogan ‘healthy and bright future for all’.
Al Gafli pointed out that the launch of the second phase comes an investment breakthrough achieved by the campaign and the culmination of practical success in immunising more than 13 million Pakistani children against polio in the first phase.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports indicated the seriousness of the increase in the number of cases detected in Pakistan in 2014, where 303 child were affected by 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 cases, where about 90 per cent of children who fell victim to polio through 2014 are Pakistani children.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease which attacks the nervous system, and most people exposed to the disease are children under the age of five, and one child out of every 200-400 children affected by polio is exposed to paralysis or death. According to government reports and international organisations, lack of health awareness about the dangers of the disease and erroneous beliefs hinder eradication.
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 (Dh20.20 billion), and a scientific study estimated that efforts of the global initiative to eradicate polio could save as much as $40 to $50 billion.
