Uganda has received 714,579 doses of yellow fever vaccine, worth USD 643,765, for an emergency reactive mass vaccination campaign in Masaka and Rukungiri districts.
Since January 2016, Uganda has been grappling with yellow fever outbreak in Masaka and Rukungiri districts, with 30 suspected cases and 11 deaths reported. The last reported yellow fever outbreak in Uganda had been in 2010 that affected five districts in the northern part of the country.
The GAVI Alliance is said to be paying for the vaccines after a request from Uganda was approved through the International Coordination Group on vaccines. The group comprises of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The campaign, scheduled to begin in the second week of May, is targeting a population of 698,850 people, aged six months and above, who will be immunized against yellow fever in the two districts where the outbreak has been confirmed.
Ms Aida Girma, UNICEF representative in Uganda said that the importance of carrying out a massive vaccination campaign is to interrupt the transmission. With this exercise, the affected population will be able to achieve immunity against yellow fever.
Currently, the Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Health and its partners, UNICEF, WHO, MSF and Center for Disease Control (CDC), is supporting social mobilization activities, facilitation of health workers, and capacity building of health teams in the affected districts.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been accused of ripping off Ugandans who seek the yellow fever vaccine.
The city authority denies the accusations and defends the fees for the vaccine as justified. The saga started after KCCA, a government entity, was accused by the National Medical Stores (NMS)of charging Shs100,000 for the vaccine it received free of charge. The NMS said it gave KCCA about 3,000 doses of the vaccine free of charge.