National Vaccination challenges Schools in Kampala

By; Olivia Nabaggala

16^th October 2019

A cross-section of schools in Kampala have said that the Ministry of Health did not inform them about the mass immunization exercise against Polio, Measles and Rubella, in time, to guarantee adequate planning for the exercise.

The five-day mass immunization campaign, funded by the Government of Uganda; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; the United Nations Children’s Fund; and the World Health Organization (WHO), started this morning across the country, targeting children younger than 15 years, whether previously immunized or not, and will be a Launchpad to introduce the measles-rubella vaccine into Uganda’s routine immunization schedule.

According to the Ministry of Health, the campaign will be conducted in schools for the first three days and in communities for the last two days. But a number of Kampala schools say that they were only informed last week about the government plan. Several others only learnt about the campaign through adverts..

However the Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng warned of any person who will sabotage the program cautioning sections of the public who are trading allegations of a bad vaccine to the children saying the vaccines are proven and aimed at promoting a health population.