ENTEBBE – The ministry of health has on Thursday, July 18 received the last batch of the 20 million doses of Measles Rubella vaccines at Entebbe Airport ahead of the Measles Rubella mass vaccination campaign slated to take place from September 25 to 29, 2019.
According to the Ministry of Health, the vaccines were approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and are provided free of charge, the drugs are both safe and effective.
The Director Clinical Services in the Ministry of Health Dr Olaro Charles in his remarks said the total cost of the Measles Rubella campaign is USD 19M, cost of vaccines and other logistics is $6.3M while operations- cost $12.7M.
“This campaign conducted with support from will target children aged 9 months to 15 years,” he revealed.
Mr. Olaro reminded school headteachers that they need to ask for immunization cards from parents upon admission in the school.
“I wish to inform school headteachers that they are mandated by the Immunization Act 2017 to request for child vaccination cards at school enrollment to verify pupils’ vaccination status at school entry,” Olaro said.
He said that a wide age group vaccination campaign against Measles and Rubella is a pre-requisite for the introduction of the Rubella vaccine into routine Immunization.
“The campaign also provides an opportunity to interrupt the current Measles and Rubella outbreaks and strengthen disease surveillance,” he noted.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Uganda Representative Dr. Doreen Mulenga said, “Procurement of vaccines and other immunization supplies is one of the several approaches UNICEF is taking to the support government to contain measles and rubella outbreaks.”
She added that vaccination is the only way of preventing child deaths.
“By vaccinating every child in Uganda on time, we will avert the spread of these dangerous diseases and many preventative child deaths and birth defects,” Dr. Mulengera promised.
According to UNICEF, the vaccines will protect 18 million children between the of age 9 months to 14 months from Measles-Rubella.
Dr Patrick Tusiime the Commissioner National Disease Control Program revealed that during the mass Measles Rubella Vaccination campaign, they shall also be administering polio vaccines to children who are less than 5 years of age.