More than 13.2 million children in Pakistan have been vaccinated against polio between June and September this year by the UAE government as part of a campaign set up on the directives of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The effort is part of the Middle Eastern nation’s 2013 pledge of eradicating polio by 2018, with a specific contribution towards Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The efforts, led by UAE’s Pakistan Assistance Programme (PAP), have resulted in vaccination drives in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas. The campaigns have been carried out in cooperation with the Pakistan Army, health ministry, World Health Organization and provincial governments.
Programme officials said that between 7-19 June, nearly five thousand teams worked intensively in nine areas in K-P and 12 in the tribal regions.
On 24th April 2013, one day ahead of the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi, His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan pledged a donation of AED 440 million to support global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2014.
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