13 February 2025
Your Excellency, Women and Gents,
It provides me nice pleasure to affix you in inaugurating the Poliovirus Environmental Surveillance Diagnostic Laboratory on the Nationwide Polio Laboratory in Muscat, Oman.
This state-of-the-art polio surveillance facility marks a major milestone in our collective struggle towards polio and reaffirms our unwavering dedication to public well being.
On behalf of the World Well being Group and the International Polio Eradication Initiative, I take this chance to congratulate His Majesty Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman, and His Excellency Dr Hilal bin Ali bin Hilal Al-Sabti, the Minister of Well being of Oman, for his or her visionary management and steadfast assist in making this laboratory a actuality.
For over twenty years, Oman has performed a pivotal position in supporting the polio eradication efforts of nations within the Jap Mediterranean area.
The Nationwide Polio Laboratory in Muscat, Oman, has been instrumental in testing stool samples from youngsters presenting with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) from Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen for poliovirus.
With the introduction of this new lab, Oman will now additionally undertake environmental surveillance, which permits for the identification of the poliovirus in communities even earlier than scientific instances are famous.
The lab will check environmental surveillance samples collected from Oman and different international locations.
These efforts are vital to supporting international locations, reminiscent of these within the Gulf Cooperation Council, in detecting and stopping any potential poliovirus importations.
In Yemen, the place the extended battle has severely impacted the nationwide well being system, and variant poliovirus circulation is ongoing, well timed testing by the Nationwide Polio Laboratory Oman has been vital to guiding acceptable and fast motion to interrupt poliovirus transmission.
I take this chance to specific my honest gratitude to the Ministry of Well being, the Central Public Well being Laboratories, led by Dr Hanan Al Kindi, and the Nationwide Polio Laboratory in Oman, headed by Dr Intisar Al Shukri, together with their devoted groups, for his or her unwavering dedication to polio eradication efforts.
We’re grateful to all stakeholders who’ve contributed to creating this laboratory a actuality.
Allow us to proceed to work collectively, leveraging innovation, collaboration and science to make sure that no baby is ever once more affected by polio, a debilitating illness that devastates the lives of youngsters and their households.
We stay up for our continued collaboration with the Sultanate of Oman to make sure that youngsters in our area can stay up for a polio-free future.
