ABU DHABI, 31st December, 2014 — The Volunteer Department at the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, has participated in the first phase of the national polio vaccination campaign launched throughout the country by the Ministry of Health.
The first and second phases of the campaign has targeted 416,000 children. The vaccine will be available to both Emirati and non-Emirati children up to age five years, and will be administered free of charge at 157 primary healthcare centres and government hospitals.
Rashid Mubarak Al Mansouri, Deputy Secretary-General for Local Affairs at ERC, said the ERC seeks to create community partnerships to serve all members of the community, particularly the weak and underprivileged.
Al Mansouri explained that ERC volunteers will participate in the national immunisation campaign against polio, in collaboration with medical teams from the Health Authority.
The Deputy Secretary-General added that, thanks to the preventative measures established by the Ministry of Health and other health agencies cooperating to fight polio through vaccination programmes and supplementary immunisation campaigns targetting children under five years, the UAE has been free from outbreaks of polio since 1992.