Government embarks on mandatory polio vaccination but decries insufficiency

Government embarks on mandatory polio vaccination but decries insufficiency

In August 2020, the Ministry of Health declared Polio in Uganda after environmental samples conducted within Kampala and parts of Wakiso District tested positive for Polio type two virus.

Since then the Ministry has been working effortlessly amidst the pandemic to put a stop on this killer disease traced to have come from Sudan before it escalades.

On Thursday 12th January, the government through the State Minister for Health Hon. Anifa Kawooya launched the first round Polio mass vaccination campaign to children under the age of five in Wakiso district.

This campaign will last for three days from 15th to 16th January and will for now only be implemented in the two districts due to insufficient vaccine couriers that cannot accommodate the whole country on a single time.

According to the Country Representative, World Health Organization Dr. Yonas Tegegn there is no any child identified with Polio currently in Uganda but due to the positive samples found they had to intervene early to prevent it from multiplying and affecting people.

In Barracks zone Makindye division in Kampala, the campaign started early in the morning with assistance of Village Health Teams walking door to door to administer the Polio doses to the infants found home by the time of the exercise.

Also in Nabisaalu and Nkere, the campaign yielded good results on the first day as Nurses where given good assistance from local District Representatives to extend the campaign to every child entitled to this dose in their zones.

Though the government had publicized the campaign on different Media outlets in the country, some parents seemed ignorant about it and in that perspective some denied their children this chance of oral vaccination.

Some locals though welcomed this initiative by government and they complied well with the Health teams on the ground for the success of this campaign.

Schools like Minaka kindergarten& primary School and Morning Stars’ School in Makindye also embraced the campaign by providing access of Health teams in their premises.

Uganda has been Polio free since 1996 and this was achieved by the extensive vaccination campaigns by the government through the Health Ministry to end the disease presence.