By Kwanta Douglas –
Uganda is set to immunise about eight million children below the age of five during the polio vaccination campaign which kicks off today.
While speaking to DAILY MONITOR after flagging off the immunisation equipment at Kololo airstrip, the Minister for Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, said the exercise would be conducted door-to-door countrywide from January 14 to 16.
“Our health workers will reach out to different families and I ask the parents and health workers to ensure that we finish this campaign which has been postponed for quite a while. There is a big number of unvaccinated and under vaccinated children under five years,” she said.
About Covid-19, Dr Aceng said: “Earlier some health facilities had postponed the Covid-19 vaccination exercises but now health workers will not run outreach services for Covid-19. But Covid vaccination will continue to run at health facilities.”
The Unicef representative in Uganda, Dr Mohamed El Munir A. Safieldin, said one of Uganda’s greatest achievements over the past 20 years has been the ability to keep a huge number of children alive.
He added that back in 2000, Uganda’s mortality rate for children under five years was 151 deaths per 1,000 live births.