1.40 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

UAE polio drive for 10m kids in Pakistan

Published
By 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 - under the slogan 'Health for All - Better Future’ – aims to eradicate polio in the world. Twenty-five million vaccination doses will be administered as part of the programme which seeks to support health awareness in Pakistan, reduce the spread of epidemic, and prevent 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.

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 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 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.