Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed this week pledged $30 million USD as part of a global drive to rid the world of polio.
Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, had been attending the Rotary Convention in Atlanta in the U.S and was one of 31 donors contributing to the $1.2 billion USD target needed to wipe out the disease.
"The UAE is proud to be a leader in the effort to end polio," said Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the U.S, as quoted by The National.
"The Emirates looks forward to a future in which every child around the world is able to experience the full economic and health benefits of polio eradication."
Sheikh Mohammed has been a global leader in the fight against a disease and in 2011, he linked up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to give $100 million USD for vaccines in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Polio has been eliminated everywhere but Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
However, this week, reports emerged that an outbreak of polio had been reported in Syria.
This is causing concerns for the World Health Organization (WHO) as they face obstacles in administering the much needed vaccinations to children in the war-torn country.
Two children have been paralyzed in the last few months in Daesh-held Deir al-Zor in the first polio cases in Syria since 2014.
According to reports, WHO’s Communications Officer, Oliver Rosenbauer stated that vaccinating even 50 percent of the estimated 90,000 children under the age of five in Deir al-Zor would probably not be enough to stop the outbreak. To have maximum effect and protect the population, immunization rates should be closer to 80 percent.
"Are we concerned that we're in fact going to be seeding further future polio vaccine-derived outbreaks? ... Absolutely, that is a concern. And that is why this vaccine must be used judiciously and to try to ensure the highest level of coverage," Rosenbauer said.
Polio is a highly infectious virus that affects mainly young children. The virus is transmitted person-to-person and mainly through a fecal-oral route or through contaminated water or food.
Polio can paralyze a child within hours of exposure.