World Polio Day serves as a global reminder of the importance of protecting children against polio through vaccination. The Ministry of Health and Prevention reaffirms its commitment to a world free from polio and encourages citizens and residents to unite in ensuring every child, everywhere, is protected. The day also recognizes the remarkable progress made toward eradication and highlights the vital role of vaccines in safeguarding future generations.

Official Date: October 24^th

Key Focus Areas

• Achieve universal child protection through vaccination by ensuring that every child receives timely and complete vaccination doses.
• Maintain strong national vaccination coverage so that no child in the UAE is left vulnerable to polio.
• Raise community awareness about prevention by promoting accurate information and encouraging trust in vaccination programs.
• Strengthen surveillance and rapid response measures to detect, investigate, and contain any potential cases.
• Support global eradication efforts by reinforcing the UAE’s role in international partnerships and contributing to ending polio worldwide.
• Build a polio-free future by protecting every child today.
   

Key Facts

• Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age, but unvaccinated individuals of any age remain at risk.

• The virus spreads mostly through the faecal-oral route, often via contaminated water or food, and multiplies in the intestine.

• Initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, neck stiffness, and limb pain, which can progress rapidly to paralysis.

• One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs, and 5–10% of immobilized patients die when their breathing muscles are affected.

• As long as a single child is infected, children everywhere remain at risk, and failure to eradicate polio could result in a global resurgence.

• There is no cure for polio. It can only be prevented through safe and effective vaccines.

• Two vaccines are available – oral polio vaccine (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), both proven to protect children for life when given in multiple doses.

• More than 20 million people have been spared paralysis, and 1.5 million childhood deaths prevented through polio vaccination.

Eradicating polio will save at least US$ 40–50 billion, with the greatest