UAE Polio Vaccination Programme Reaches 57 Million Children In Pakistan

More than 57 million children in Pakistan have been vaccinated though an ongoing UAE polio eradication campaign, officials have announced.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Oct, 2018 ) :More than 57 million children in Pakistan have been vaccinated though an ongoing UAE polio eradication campaign, officials have announced.

The initiative began in 2014 and since then more than 346 million vaccines have been administered to those in need. So far in 2018, 98 per cent drop since the start of the campaign.

Abdullah Al Ghafli, director of the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme, said the results were an important step towards realising the UN's objective of eliminating the disease altogether, Abu Dhabi based newspaper "The National" reported on Tuesday .

"Between 2014 and September this year more than 346 million vaccines doses were given to children as part of the UAE's humanitarian assistance to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan," said Mr Al Ghafli.

"The campaign covered high-risk areas which include 25 districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 33 districts in the Baluchistan Province, and 12 districts in Sindh Province.

" Polio, or polio virus, is a highly infectious childhood disease which was once prevalent throughout the world.

The number of cases has plummeted over the past 30 years, however, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to just 22 in 2017.

Experts now hope that the disease could be wiped out entirely before too long.

The UAE's programme in Pakistan � known as UAE-PAP � was launched by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has donated US$167 million since 2011 to support global efforts to eradicate the disease, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It mostly affects children under the age of five, with one in 200 becoming paralysed. There are just three countries in the world that have yet to be declared polio-free: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.