Abu Dhabi: In line with its objectives of the National Seasonal Flu Awareness Campaign 2021, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) recently organized a series of initiatives to support community awareness on the critical nature of taking flu vaccination.
Launched in September under the theme “Protect yourself… Protect your community”, the 2021 Campaign strives to increase community awareness, promote prevention methods, and encourage community members to take the seasonal flu vaccination.
Dr. Hussein Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Public Health Sector joined numerous other senior officials and employees from the ministry in attending the awareness day activities along with a few families and children.
Apart from lighting up the Majestic Dubai Frame in Orange, the awareness day activities also included creative activity for young children to enhance their awareness and foster their brainstorming skills through drawing, colours and kinetic games.
The Ministry also used smart screens to spread awareness and educational information such as highlighting the importance of prevention methods and conveying a clear message that the vaccination is the best medical intervention to prevent disease.
Flu vaccines are safe and effective. They can curb the disease and its complications especially for individuals at risk of developing complications from influenza such as children under 5 years of age, the elderly, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases such as asthma, heart diseases, kidneys, liver, diabetes and pressure, and health workers,
Dr. Hussein Abdul Rahman Al Rand remarked while calling upon all community members to take the vaccine and follow proper preventive habits to reduce the spread of seasonal influenza.
“The Ministry of Health pays utmost attention to diversifying awareness programmes about influenza, methods of prevention, and the importance of vaccination to cover most segments of society using innovative ways and means that suit every category”, Dr. Al Rand further added.
“The National Seasonal Flu Awareness Campaign is one of the most important annual events on the Ministry’s agenda. It was developed based on its strategy that focuses on raising the public awareness of disease prevention and encouraging people to take safe vaccinations to improve community health, develop the health system’s response to respiratory diseases and strengthen surveillance mechanisms. This would certainly improve the results of the strategic indicator of the vaccination coverage rate according to international standards,” Dr. Al Rand concluded.