ABU DHABI, 29th March, 2018 (WAM) -- Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Director of the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme, UAE-PAP, said that there are great attempts to control the spread of polio virus in Afghanistan, as for the first time there were no cases of polio virus in Pakistan in 2018 until now.
Al Ghafli made the remarks during the meeting of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Co-ordination on the Common WPV Reservoirs, which kicked off today in Abu Dhabi. The meeting, which is organised by the World Health Organisation, WHO, is being held in line with the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and under the patronage and follow up of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
Interviewed by the Emirates News Agency, WAM, Al Ghafli said that the meeting comes within the country's efforts and initiatives to promote health and protect people from epidemics and infectious diseases, and within the UAE's leadership humanitarian approach and principles.
He added that the conference focuses on the coordination and management of vaccination campaigns between both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries where polio virus continues to spread. Coordination efforts include the management and planning of vaccination campaigns as well as monitoring of the disease.
The meetings are concerned with organising the vaccination of refugees and those who cross the borders between the two countries as both countries have almost 48 million children who are receiving the vaccination every month. There are more than 300,000 members of the vaccination teams working for four days every month to target these children with vaccination doses.
During the recent years, the polio virus has declined sharply to reach 97% especially in Pakistan, thanks to the efforts of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to eradicate the virus from the world.
"During the first three months of this year, and for the first time, there were no cases of polio virus in Pakistan. There are also serious attempts to control the infections in Afghanistan and preventing the transmission of the virus from Afghanistan to Pakistan, as well as keeping Pakistan's children immune from the virus," he concluded.
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