Today's Edition
Sami Abdel Raouf (Dubai)
President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has placed a heavy emphasis on combating health challenges worldwide and achieving the goals of the global strategy to eradicate polio.
Over the past years, His Highness's vision has formed the basis of the UAE's initiatives, financial contributions, work, and field projects, which include vaccination campaigns around the world. President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also supports the efforts of the global polio eradication programme and its vaccination campaigns in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries in the world that face the transmission of the wild endemic polio virus.
In celebration of World Polio Day, which falls annually on October 24, the UAE celebrates the nation's health personnel through a multi-day series of activities and events, including lectures over the latest developments and global recommendations related to eradicating polio.
Health authorities are also broadcasting awareness messages about the importance of vaccinations to the public on official websites and social media platforms. In sharing information about the importance of receiving polio vaccinations, the nation's health officials aim to enhance the turnout for vaccination services, foster community immunity, and protect children from infectious diseases. International Appreciation
The World Health Organization expressed its appreciation for the UAE's initiatives and the efforts of President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in supporting and enhancing efforts to eradicate polio, providing humanitarian and development assistance, supporting the health sector, and enhancing preventive programmes in Pakistan.
The organisation had previously expressed its appreciation for the UAE's support for the vaccination programme in Pakistan, which was accomplished through an initiative from President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan within the framework of the UAE's assistance programme for Pakistan.
UAE Campaign
Through its on-the-ground efforts in Pakistan and its commitment to the global polio initiative and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), the UAE is working to eradicate polio from every town, village, and country around the world. The UAE Polio Vaccination Campaign in Pakistan announced last February that it had administered approximately 667.5 million doses of polio vaccination from 2014 until the end of 2022, targeting 17 million children in Pakistan.
This year has been set as a target to stop the transmission of all remaining polio viruses worldwide, according to the strategy "Global Polio Eradication Initiative 2022-2026: Fulfilling the Promise".
The Last Mile
In 2017, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed launched the Last Mile Fund, a 10-year initiative valued at $100 million, aimed at paving the way for the eradication of two neglected and devastating tropical diseases: river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. In 2018, the fund provided more than 13.5 million treatments for the two diseases and trained approximately 76,000 healthcare workers to help expand the scope and reach of treatment.
A Global Partnership
The UAE has placed utmost importance on eradicating polio worldwide and has announced its ongoing commitment, with the support of the UAE President, to build effective regional and international partnerships to address various humanitarian challenges facing humanity, foremost of which is eradicating polio. President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan established the Reach Institute in Abu Dhabi through a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The institute's efforts focus on eradicating five diseases, with a concentration on enhancing support for the eradication of infectious diseases worldwide and advancing strategies for disease eradication. The institute also provides support by developing and implementing strategies to eliminate diseases in affected countries, innovating systems and tools for disease control, and playing a leading academic role in developing and improving available systems for disease eradication.
An Advanced Model
The UAE is committed to keeping up with the latest global developments and adhering to all recommendations from the World Health Organization, in the context of improving strategic indicator outcomes for child immunisation coverage, through the continuous professional development of medical and technical staff.
The UAE's health officials stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the global strategy for virus eradication, which are then reflected in the activation of the national response plan. The last case of polio in the UAE was discovered in 1992, and the country was officially declared free of polio in 2007.
The UAE is a regional and global advanced model in the field of polio eradication, having achieved remarkable results itself.
