UAE begins polio vaccination of more than 10 million children in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, 13th March, 2016 (WAM) -- The UAE has launched a massive campaign to vaccinate 10.673 million children against polio in Pakistan, as part of phase-3 of the Project to Assist Pakistan, UAE PAP. UAE PAP has announced the launch of the programme, under the slogan 'Health for All - Better Future", which is in implementation of the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for providing humanitarian and developmental assistance to the friendly people of Pakistan, and as part of an initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio in the world. 25 million vaccination doses will be administered as part of the programme which seeks to support health awareness in Pakistan, reduce the spread of epidemics, and prevent the suffering of children in affected areas from poor health. The programme reaffirms the UAE's humanitarian principles and its commitment to help the needy and poor nations through building human development programmes and providing preventative healthcare to children. In 2013, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed donated AED440 million in support of global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is the second contribution that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi makes towards delivering life-saving vaccines to children all around the world. In 2011, Sheikh Mohamed and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a strategic partnership offering US$100 million contribution, on a 50/50 basis, to purchase and deliver vaccinations to the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Director of UAE PAP, said that the launch of the third phase of the UAE vaccination campaign comes after an investment breakthrough achieved by the campaign and the culmination of practical success in vaccinating over 21 million Pakistani children against polio during the first and second phases. Al Ghafli referred to the extraordinary role and the particular importance of the UAE polio campaign in supporting the global initiative endorsed by the General Assembly of the World Health Organisation, WHO, 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. The campaign includes the geographical coverage of 66 areas, 15 of them in the region's tribal areas, 25 districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 12 regions in the province of Baluchistan, as well as the Karachi district in Sindh province. Efforts of the vaccination teams will include the administration of three consecutive vaccination doses to 10.673 million children from March to May 2016. Al Ghafli also said that the programme had completed all the preparations for the implementation of the campaign in various Pakistani regions, where it has begun the implementation of an advertising campaign in various media to raise the population's awareness of the seriousness of the polio epidemic and encourage them to welcome the vaccination teams and cooperate with them. 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. The UAE vaccination campaign will be carried out in cooperation with the Pakistani leadership and with the aid of the Ministry of Health of Pakistan, the Ministries of Health in the provincial governments, the World Health Organisation, and UNICEF, and will be administered under the supervision of medical staff specialists of those authorities. Al Ghafli went on to express his thanks and appreciation to President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed for launching and supporting the initiative to protect Pakistan's children from epidemics of dangerous diseases that threaten their health, safety and well-being, which is recognised as a new addition to the continuous humanitarian initiatives of the UAE's leadership to help the world's children and to protect them, as well as to ensure a bright future for them. He also thanked the Pakistani government and army, the WHO and UNICEF, as well as representatives of provincial vaccination committees, field teams, and all those who planned, prepared and executed the UAE polio eradication campaign in Pakistan. – Emirates News Agency, WAM - http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395292766777.html