NEWS: Six million kids to get polio vaccine

Six million kids to get polio vaccine

Monday, 1st June, 2009 from NEW VISION

THE Government plans to immunise six million children against polio and measles, the health ministry has said. The immunisation manager, Dr. Possy Mugyenyi, said children under the age of five would be immunised from Saturday to Monday. “We have targeted to cover 95% of the country. This would be a good step in fighting polio and measles.” Mugyenyi was addressing journalists at Hotel Africana in Kampala yesterday. He said the sh11b exercise is funded by Unicef, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Red Cross and the Government. A WHO official, William Mbabazi, said 10 paralytic polio cases had been recently confirmed in Uganda. He explained that eight cases were detected in Amuru and two in Moyo and Pader districts. Mbabazi expressed concern over the fact that 2,000 polio cases were confirmed countrywide. The assistant commissioner in-charge of health, Paul Kagwa, said they had scaled up the mobilisation to encourage the public to support the campaign. He added that political, religious and cultural leaders would be sensitised about the exercise. Kagwa warned that parents who sabotage the campaign would be prosecuted. He explained that polio had been imported from the DR Congo and Southern Sudan as a result of cross-border movements. Uganda had been declared free of polio since 1996 and was certified in October 2006.