The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Busia municipality leaders are demanding for the provision of more doses of cholera vaccine to ensure that the entire population is vaccinated against the disease.
The government-provided 60,840 doses of the oral cholera vaccine for the first round of vaccination which ended on Wednesday in the municipality whose population stretches beyond 70,000 people. The vaccine is administered orally for persons above one year of age to protect them against cholera, a severe, potentially epidemic, life-threatening diarrheal disease.
It is administered in two doses which are given 14-days apart and it offers individuals protection of up to three years, reducing the risk of an individual getting sick with or dying of cholera. The second round of vaccination in Busia is expected to take place after two weeks.
The door-to-door oral vaccination exercise which covered 24 villages in Busia municipality was conducted after six major outbreaks of the disease in the border district in recent years. The district has recorded 247 cholera cases and seven deaths.
But Busia district health officer Dr Willis Syongola says that the vaccines were not enough to cover the entire population of the area. However, he says a report has been sent to the Ministry of Health indicating a need for more vaccines.
Similarly, Busia municipality mayor Hassan Bwire Opio observes a need for more vaccines so that even the population of more than 11,000 people who commute to the town get vaccinated.
Geoffrey Odwori, a resident of Sibarara in Western division says that they were poorly mobilized for the vaccination exercise. In the same way, Yasin Bwire, another resident says that they had been misinformed about the vaccination and as a result, many of them shunned the exercise thinking that it was a trial for the COVID-19 vaccines.
George Barasa, the LCI chairman of Nangwe shops appealed to the government to ensure that the vaccines are always available in all health facilities in the area.
The oral cholera vaccine is used as part of the ministry of health’s integrated cholera prevention and control-strategy which includes safe water, improved sanitation and high-quality case management and is in line with the on-going cholera elimination activities.
******
URN
