The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng has come out to reassure the nation that social media stories that there have been fatalities during the National Measles-Rubella and Polio Immunization campaign, are false.
“The MR vaccine is safe and effective and does not have any fatal side effects as is being stated in the social media post. We are happy that our children are safe, healthy and protected. Please disregard with distaste the misquoting and mis-information,” Aceng said.
” It’s a shame that someone purporting to be @nbstv is coming out at night to confuse the population by posting false information and associating it to a statement I made today to update the public on final results of the MR campaign.”
The health minister had earlier announced what she said were “exciting results” from the vaccination campaign. “We achieved a 108% coverage of vaccination against Measles and Rubella; vaccinating 19,476,110 children against MR out of the targeted 18,100,000 for vaccination,” she told the press.
She said this was the largest vaccination campaign in the history of Uganda. “This was the first and largest vaccination campaign in the history of this country. Three vaccines were being delivered at the same time and the widest age range. The targets were 18.1 million children for vaccination against Measles-Rubella (9 months to 15 years of age) and 8.2 million children (0-5 years of age) for Polio vaccination.”
NBS later brought down the tweet, and offered a clarification.”CLARIFICATION: The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, held a press conference to update the public on the recent Measles-Rubella & Polio vaccination campaign. She ruled out any fatal side effects or deaths attributable to the use of the vaccines. However, our tweet on the factual story we ran on air misrepresented some of these key facts and for this, we gravely apologise.”
EARLIER STATEMENT BY MINISER ACENG
UPDATE ON THE NATIONAL MEASLES-RUBELLA AND POLIO campaign Uganda 2019 by The Independent Magazine on Scribd
