NEWS: Thousands rush for polio, measles immunisation

Thousands rush for polio, measles immunisation

Sunday, 7th June, 2009 from NEW VISION



Mothers lining up as they wait to have their children immunised at Wakiso health centre on Saturday




THOUSANDS of parents countrywide over the weekend jammed immunisation centres rushed their children for immunisation against polio and measles. “The turn-up on day one was overwhelming. Districts with a high turn-up include Bukedea, Mbale, Sironko, Kaliro, Kampala and Wakiso. Some have even asked for more vaccines,” said Dr. Possy Mugyenyi, the head of the immunisation programme in the health ministry. He explained that due to poor distribution, there was a shortage of vaccines in some areas on the first day. “The measles vaccine was a crowd puller. Although the vaccine was to be administered to children between nine months and four years, some above this age were immunised and this is not bad,” Mugyenyi said. “We had given an equal amount of vaccines to all sub-counties. After the high turn-up in some areas, we had to redistribute.” Mugyenyi appealed to heads of nursery schools to ensure that pupils are immunised in the exercise that ends today. In Kampala, health officers had difficulty in transporting the vaccines, resulted into the late delivery in some centres. The district plans to have 310,000 children vaccinated. “On Thursday and Friday, we carried out immunisation in the schools. We are continuing with the exercise today,” said Joseph Senzoga, the in-charge of disease surveillance and response. Most of the immunisation centres in Wakiso district visited on Saturday registered more than half of the anticipated numbers. The district is targeting 240,000 children. The local leaders warned residents against shunning the exercise. The district director for health services, Emmanuel Mukasa, said: “In 2003, we designed a district ordinance on immunisation. Any visitor or resident found disrupting immunisation exercises faces the law. They can be imprisoned up to six years or pay a fine of sh1m.” He added that in 2008, about 8,000 children in Wakiso were not immunised. Touring the immunisation centres in Wakiso on Saturday, the World Health Organisation country representative, Joaquim Saweka, said: “Polio and measles do not respect borders. With these efforts, we are confident Wakiso will be one of the districts with a high immunisation turn-up. ” In Kasese district, some areas like Karusandara sub-county that registered a slow response in March had overwhelming numbers in the ongoing immunisation. Immunisation kicked off on Saturday with a low turn-up, but the trend changed in the afternoon. “We expect good results. The high turn up is because politicians joined the immunisation campaign,” said Dr. Peter Mukobi, the Kasese health officer. Several parents from the DR Congo crossed into Uganda to have their children immunised in Kasese and Kanungu districts. “We have received about 30 Congolese on day one, but hope to get many of them before we conclude the programme,” Josephine Kasya, the district chairperson, said. The Uganda Red Cross coordinator for Rukungiri and Kanungu districts, Benjamin Cadet, said some Congolese had walked for over 50km to immunise their children. The relief agency deployed 200 volunteers in all the 508 immunisation posts in Kanungu district to assist the health workers. The Uganda Red Cross is supporting the Government in mobilising the public and transporting the vaccines in 15 districts for measles and 11 districts for polio. In Mityana, the Buganda Kingdom’s Ssingo county chief, Mukwenda Stanley Kijjambu, warned detractors against misleading the public about the immunisation. Kijjambu on Friday accused some people of politicising the exercise. The district health officer, Dr. Fred Lwasampijja, said the turn-up on Saturday was good. “We expect to have at least 90% of the children immunised.” Reported by Anthony Bugembe, John Nzinjah, Caleb Bahikaho and Luke Kagiri