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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health is scaling up vaccination drives against cholera in districts that are likely to be affected.
Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director-General of Health Services says that effective next month, they will be carrying out vaccination in six districts of Kasese, Moyo, Arua, Ntoroko, Busia and Namayingo against cholera since it’s one of the diseases that pose the highest risk and their biggest scare as the heavy rains set in.
He said targeted districts where vaccination is planned to end by June add to the 20 districts where vaccination happened initially when OPM released the initial alert in October. He says to date in these areas about 700,000 people have been vaccinated.
He urged the public that they should beware that the anticipated heavy rains will lead to contamination of water sources and break down of latrine facilities exposing them to diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery in addition to diseases of the cold such as asthma in addition to vector-borne diseases especially malaria.
When asked about preparedness to handle the likely surge in numbers of the sick, Mwebesa said they are building on initiatives created to prevent coronavirus from spreading to the country since most of the diseases just like the virus can be prevented with simple hygiene practices such as hand washing, eating warm food, boiling drinking water and linking them to care as early as possible.
Martin Owor, the Commissioner Disaster Preparedness and Management at OPM said that people living near river banks and steep slopes should shift to safer locations to avoid mudslides.
In the highly affected districts, he urged people to store food and cook materials such as charcoal or firewood to last three months.
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