14 February 2004	Saturday	22 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD Feb 13: United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday contributed a grant of $500,000 for Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) to reinforce the World Health Organization's (WHO) support in the management of anti-polio campaign in Pakistan.

UAE Ambassador Ali Mohammad Al-Shamsi presented the grant to WHO representative Dr Khalif Bile at the Ministry of Health during a signing ceremony. Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, Geneva-based representative of WHO Director General on Polio Dr David Heymann and Special Adviser to Regional Director-EMRO on Polio Dr M.H. Wahdan were also present.

WHO will channel the donation, which is a second such contribution by UAE, to bring about improvements in the quality of polio campaigns, to strengthen logistic support and to consolidate proactive surveillance activities.

The UAE ambassador, while handing over the cheque on behalf of UAE president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, expressed the confidence that this contribution would be targeted towards supporting supplementary immunization activities, scaling up programme logistics and strengthening surveillance.

By rejoining this national and international partnership for polio eradication in Pakistan, we will collectively be able to maintain the momentum to achieve the target by end-2004, he said.

He also acknowledged the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan and said he looked forward to celebrating polio eradication from the country in the very near future.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan said Pakistan's progress in the realm of polio eradication was the result of unique partnership that has resulted in the reduction of polio cases from 324 in 1998 to 99 in 2003.

This partnership has brought the required efficiency to eradication efforts, improved the quality of house-to-house campaigns and consolidated laboratory investigation to ensure that no polio case goes missing, he said.

He also thanked UAE for being the first Muslim government to support anti-polio activities at a time when the world was hard- pressed for resources to eliminate the crippling disease.

The minister also called upon other Muslim countries to emulate the unique step not merely in health, but in all other development sectors as well. He also referred to Pakistan's signing of global declaration for polio eradication in Geneva on January 15 and said the entire country was being mobilized to protect the children of Pakistan.

He said policy-makers at the highest level were actively working with civil society organizations and communities at the grass-roots level to meet the end-2004 deadline.

Dr Bile said no cases were being reported since the first week of May 2003 and Northern Sindh seemed to be putting a break on virus transmission. Southern Punjab, which was known to be a hotspot for polio virus circulation, also remains largely quiet, he said.

He said though the virus was actively circulating in the NWFP, FATA and a few other areas, the level of available political commitment at the federal and provincial levels was reassuring.

Dr Bile said these challenges demand intensification of WHO technical support for Pakistan and enhancement of its existing partnership efforts towards PEI. Pakistan needs this technical support more than ever, he pointed out, and compared the UAE grant to the Japanese government's support to Unicef's efforts in procuring vaccine for the programme.

Polio paralyzed 350,000 children the world over in 1998 while the number declined to 1,900 in 2003 whereas the number of endemic countries has fallen from 125 to six only.