By Muganzi Vincent
Communications Officer

Following an alert from World Health Organization that identified trends of Polio outbreak in Uganda, neighboring countries and in the Horn of Africa Region, Uganda has moved to vaccinate its citizens aged 5 years and below. Having been already marked in the Districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso, Ministry of Health has organized a polio vaccination campaign aimed to curb the growing polio virus threat.

In a meeting that saw various stakeholders attend and held in the District Council Hall at the District Headquarters today, the District Health Officer Godfrey Timbihulira said that over Ugx 93 million for this exercise has already been received and the district is ready to commence the exercise on 14th January 2022.

The Secretary for Health Gerald Bategeka called upon the Sub County leadership to employ all efforts and mobilize their communities to embrace the exercise. With fears of people not turning up for the exercise, Bategeka tasked them to assure the community members that it is not COVID-19 vaccination but rather Polio vaccination.

“Parents stay on the lookout for children 15 years and below who complain of weaknesses in one or both of his/her limbs and report to the responsible persons”

The Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Habib Abubakar pledged full support with the required logistics to see the exercise executed and tasked the Health Team to exhibit transparency and account for the funds thoroughly as required.

According to the National Coordinator Dr. John Turyagumanawe who was in attendance, Uganda has not seen polio in about 2 decades till of recent when the virus was detected in districts of Central Uganda during an environmental assessment.
“Parents stay on the lookout for children 15 years and below who complain of weaknesses in one or both of his/her limbs and report to the responsible persons” Turyagumanawe called.

Edith Karugaba who is In-charge of Immunization in the District says in stock the District has already received from the Ministry of Health 53,800 doses of the Novel Oral Polio 2 vaccine and a total of 42,000 children (20.5 % of our population) who are under the target age from 325 villages and 57 parishes have been targeted.
She asserted that this exercise will be run by a team of one VHT together with the local council leader and a medical worker who will be moving House to House.

PROTECT YOUR CHILD IMMUNISE NOW!