• Home
• /
• Government

UAE begins polio vaccination for 10m children in Pakistan

Islamabad - In 2013, Mohammed bin Zayed donated Dh440million in support of global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Read more...

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 the President His Highness Shaikh 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 Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to eradicate polio in the world.
About 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 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 Balochistan, 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.

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, Mohammed bin Zayed donated Dh440million in support of global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This is the second contribution made by Mohammed bin Zayed towards delivering life-saving vaccines to children all around the world.
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.