UAE provides 86.6m polio vaccine doses in Pakistan
EMIRATES CAMPAIGN’S ACHIEVEMENTS HIGHLIGHTED AT MOHAMMAD BIN ZAYED’S MAJLIS
12,765 supervisors and 21,116 security men, using health-care centres and mobile units to reach remote villages, refugee camps and border areas, covering 49 per cent of Pakistan.
Al Gafli added that the UAE has also implemented 163 development projects at a cost of $340 million.
Dr Elias Durry, emergency coordinator for polio eradication at the World Health Organisation, thanked the UAE for its continued support.
“We have never been closer to wiping polio off the face of the Earth,” he said. “Africa has seen strong progress. With no wild poliovirus cases reported since August 2014, the continent is on the cusp of becoming polio-free. Pakistan remains the single largest risk to the eradication effort. In 2014, more than 85 per cent of global cases were reported in Pakistan and the majority of Afghanistan’s cases were tied to Pakistan. Both countries must succeed together to achieve sustained cessation of polio.”
Durry called on governments of polio-affected countries to redouble their efforts to reach children in insecure areas.
A portion of a documentary titled produced by Abu Dhabi-based film production company Image Nation, was screened at the majlis.
Directed by the award-winning documentary film director Tom Roberts, Every Last Child is the dramatic story of five people caught in the polio crisis in Pakistan. Roberts congratulated the UAE for its “remarkable” efforts in Pakistan to eradicate polio.