Polio vaccination exercise ends today

The Ministry of Health has announced that a national polio vaccination campaign that has been on-going will end today.

The exercise winds up in Kampala today where the latest health ministry figures reveal that about 84 percent of children below five years in the city have been vaccinated against polio in the campaign.

This means that out of the 356,414 children, 298,169 that reside in Kampala have been vaccinated.

As of today, the country has registered a success rate of 120.9% of the national coverage in the mass vaccination of Polio.

The ministry of health in August 2021, declared an outbreak of polio following confirmation of laboratory tests from samples taken from Lubigi and Bugolobi sewage treatment plant.

Plans were then laid to immunise over 356,414 children that reside within the city under the age of five years.

Vaccination officers started with schools before embarking on a house-to-house strategy to administer the novel oral polio vaccines.

In Kampala, Dr. Alex Ndyabakira, the Makindye Division Chief Medical Officer, says; over 84% of the total population of children below five years in Kampala had by press time been vaccinated.

Unfortunately, according to Dr. Alex Ndyabakira, some parents refused to let their children be vaccinated.

Dr Alfred Driwale, the programme manager of Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (UNEPI), said they have received their desired outcomes with the current National Coverage standing at 120.9%

Polio is a viral disease that is transmitted from person to person, mainly through a fecal-oral route or less frequently, through contaminated water or food and multiples inside the intestines.

Uganda hopes to hopes to eradicate Polio in the shortest time possible.

In the concluding campaign, Uganda hopes to have vaccinated over 8.8m children below the age of 5.