Ramallah: The third phase of the largest health initiative of its kind in the Middle East to vaccinate Palestinian children against pneumococcal diseases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is being implemented by the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation.
Pneumococcal diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis are the leading vaccine-preventable killers of children under five years of age worldwide.
Salim Obaid Al Daheri, Director General of Foundation, said the third phase of the health programme would cost Dh33 million and target 170,000 infants by early 2013.
Al Daheri added that the Foundation had agreed with the Palestinian Ministry of Health to run the programme in partnership with the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation (RVF), a Washington-based non-political, non-partisan organisation whose mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of children in need.
