ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
The UAE continues to play a leading role in the global effort to eradicate polio, marking World Polio Day, with a record of humanitarian outreach that has delivered more than 850 million vaccine doses and immunised millions of children across some of the world's most challenging regions.
Polio, once paralysing hundreds of thousands of children each year, has been reduced by 99.9% globally thanks to decades of sustained immunisation campaigns. Today, only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain endemic. In both countries, the UAE - officially certified polio-free in 2007 - has helped build a path to immunisation where few others could.
Since 2011, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has contributed over $381 million to the fight against polio through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the Emirates Polio Campaign. These efforts have been channelled through the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity and implemented in partnership with governments and global health organisations, including the WHO, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation.
According to the WHO, the UAE remains the main funder of Pakistan's polio eradication programme, having provided consistent financial and operational backing to the local government over the past decade.
Launched in 2014 as part of the UAE's Pakistan Assistance Programme, the Emirates Polio Campaign has supported vaccination operations in remote districts where insecurity, political instability and limited infrastructure continue to restrict access to healthcare.
In 2024 alone, more than 17 million children across 85 high-risk areas of Pakistan received the vaccine through UAE-backed teams. More than 103,000 frontline workers, over half of them women, form the backbone of these operations, going door to door to administer vaccines and ensure every child is reached.
The UAE's response has also extended to emergencies beyond the scope of long-term programming. In August 2024, the WHO confirmed the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years: a 10-month-old child paralysed by the virus.
Within weeks, the UAE President directed $5 million to fund an emergency vaccination drive that reached 560,000 children under the age of 10 in partnership with the WHO, UNICEF and UNRWA. The campaign also provided more than 448,000 children with Vitamin A supplements.
Despite the scale of global progress, health agencies warn that the final stage of eradication remains the hardest, as the virus still spreads in areas where conflict, displacement and weak infrastructure leave millions without access to routine immunisation.
Children known as "zero-dose" - those who have never received a single vaccine - are especially vulnerable, and often live in communities that are difficult to reach through routine health systems. The WHO estimates that, globally, there are around 14 million such cases.
The global health agency also cautions that, if the disease is not eradicated in the remaining endemic areas, it could resurge to 200,000 cases a year within the next decade. This means that behind every visible case of paralysis, hundreds of others may be unknowingly transmitting the virus.