Dubai The UAE has achieved a 98 per cent coverage of people who have received shots for tuberculosis and even higher for mumps, a senior health official said Wednesday.
"Immunisation is estimated to avert between two and three million deaths annually worldwide," said Dr Mahmoud Fikri, executive director of health policies at the Ministry of Health. He was speaking at an event marking Vaccination Week.
He said the UAE has also made vaccination against measles mandatory. The six diseases for which vaccination is now necessary for children are polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and tuberculosis.
Vaccination Week is an annual region-wide initiative promoting immunisation through advocacy, education and communication activities, he said.
Collaboration
"It requires collaboration among multiple private, NGOs and governmental sectors such as education, youth, sports, police and culture," he said.
Dr Fikri said since 1988 the number of polio cases has dropped 99 per cent in some endemic areas around the world and this year, it had further reduced. Global measles deaths have dropped by 78 per cent through vaccination, he said.
"The benefits of immunisation are increasingly being extended to adolescents and adults, providing protection against life- threatening diseases such as influenza, meningitis and cancers that occur in adulthood."
