Parents and teachers hiding children from health workers conducting vaccination during a campaign against measles and rubella risk being arrested, Health Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi has warned saying they have already received reports of a cult pushing evasion of the exercise launched Thursday.
Baryomunsi who was speaking during his visit to Wakiso Health Centre IV where he launched the exercise targeting 7.4 million children aged between one to five years across the country, said it is illegal for a parent or guardian does not offer their children for the jab. He added that they had deployed informers within the community to tip them off on households that are deliberately choosing to keep their children indoors during the exercise.
This exercise comes at a time when 70 percent of the districts are reporting measles re-emergence and yet Baryomunsi said that an assessment by the ministry has found that while a high number of children receive their first dose of the measles -Rubella vaccine during routine immunization, only 64 percent of the children getting their second dose.
The minister spoke after Wakiso District LC 5 Chairperson Ian Kyeyune said that before he was voted out of office in 2011, the district had passed an ordinance compelling parents and guardians on immunization which needs to be republished. He reports that they have in the district followers of Njirinkalu, a religious cult that discourages immunization. Wakiso has over 570,000 children are targeted in the exercise that closes on Monday.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry, told local government officials who attended the launch that if they don’t meet 90 percent of this target, they will not have done anything, explaining that immunization works with herd immunity which is achieved depending on the percentage of the target who get vaccinated.
Atwine said Uganda had been doing well, until recently when they started seeing the strides made slipping away.
In an earlier interview with URN, Dr Ritah Atugonza, the Deputy Manager of the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization (UNEPI), said outbreaks recorded in the country recently are partly due to people from the neighbouring countries currently experiencing security instability.
Dr Atugonza explained that the country has been compromised, where communities have become more complacent about taking their children to complete their vaccine doses.
In Karamoja, she says children have been dying from the double burden of measles and malnutrition, and when they probed further, they found the majority of the severe cases had not been vaccinated.
Under the routine immunization schedule, the Measles – Rubella vaccine is offered in two doses, with the first one given at nine months of age and another at 18 months. MOH officials explain that the campaign targeting both those who received their full dose and those who haven’t will assist the country attain a better level of immunity.
Meanwhile figures show in the Buganda region, where the challenges of access are minimal, they have only managed to reach just 79 percent of the children with the first dose. The coverage in terms of numbers gets worse with the second dose, where only 50 percent have been vaccinated in Buganda. Campaign vaccination is being offered at health facilities and designated fixed places within the community-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
