World Health Day: President Sheikh Mohamed says UAE focus is on providing best care

Country will continue to contribute to disease eradication efforts around the world

President Sheikh Mohamed says the UAE will continue to make a telling contribution to the eradication of diseases worldwide. Chris Whiteoak / The National

President Sheikh Mohamed said the UAE's focus on developing its healthcare system remains one of its key priorities.

In a message on World Health Day, he said the country will continue to make a telling contribution to eradicating diseases worldwide.

"Safeguarding people’s health and wellbeing has been a key priority throughout the UAE’s journey," he said.

"On World Health Day we reaffirm this commitment, as we continue to build an advanced healthcare system and contribute to disease eradication efforts around the world."

This year’s World Health Day is themed Health for All, which focuses global attention on the importance of extending health care to all areas of the globe, especially those in remote and last-mile communities.

The UAE, in particular, has been at the forefront of eradicating tropical diseases.

Since 2010, the UAE has donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the fight against preventable tropical diseases such as Guinea worm.

It is a supporter of the Carter Centre, an organisation founded by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, that fights tropical illnesses.

At the beginning of 2021, Sheikh Mohamed pledged to give $10 million to the centre to mark the 30th anniversary of its partnership with the UAE.

One of Sheikh Mohamed’s biggest contributions to combating tropical diseases was his setting up, in 2017, of the Reaching the Last Mile Fund, a decade-long $100 million initiative to eliminate river blindness and lymphatic filariasis in African countries.

In January, the UAE delivered a $5 million boost to an international campaign addressing the effect of climate change on the eradication of malaria. The Reaching the Last Mile initiative will provide the key investment over the next three years.