ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has donated $23 million to fund anti-polio campaigns across Pakistan until December this year as the South Asian nation perseveres in its efforts against the crippling children’s disease.
“It will enable the polio program to keep up the momentum of implementing effective monthly polio campaigns targeting 16 million children in the highest-risk districts of Pakistan,” the World Health Organization (WHO), on behalf of the Polio Eradication Initiative, said in a statement on Saturday.
The UAE’s latest aid is in addition to $200 million donated by the Arab nation since 2014, with Dr. Palitha Mahipala, WHO Representative in Pakistan, thanking its leadership for the “generous contribution.”
“With their steadfast commitment to the shared goal of polio eradication, we can further strengthen our efforts to protect children from lifelong paralysis. This would not be possible without their support,” Mahipala said.
Pakistan resumed its anti-polio vaccinations in June, months after halting the drive due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which had overwhelmed the country’s health system, and amid threats to the campaign.
On June 10, two days after Pakistan launched a nationwide drive against polio, unidentified shooters on a motorcycle shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect anti-polio workers in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but militants often target polio teams, alleging that the vaccination drives are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
More than 33 million children under five years of age were vaccinated in 124 districts of the country in June, with officials saying that the government was “fully committed” to being polio-free in the next few months.
Pakistan is required to report zero polio cases over three years to be certified as polio-free.
“We are getting closer to our goal, but this is not the time to be complacent. We are re-doubling our efforts to ensure the gains of the past don’t slip away,” Dr. Shahzad Baig, National Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) for polio eradication, said.
Pakistan is one of the two countries globally, along with its neighbor Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic.
But things are taking a turn for the better.
In a statement on Saturday, the Polio Eradication Program (PEP) said that
Pakistan had reported “only one wild polio case in the first six months of the year.”
“This is a significant decrease, over 98 percent, compared to 59 cases during the same point in time last year,” it added.
Meanwhile, Abdulla Khalifa Alghfeli, Director of the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Program, praised Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, for his “humanitarian approach and generous support” toward the anti-polio cause.
“The efforts and sacrifices of the field vaccination teams, who faced difficult field conditions and dangerous challenges, greatly contribute to the success of the campaigns and reducing the spread of poliovirus in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” he said in a statement.