Two million children in Uganda susceptible to polio – Ministry of Health

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More than two million children in Uganda have never been vaccinated against polio according to the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization.

While Uganda was declared polio free in August 2020, the presence of unvaccinated children makes them vulnerable to vaccine derived polio, Ministry of Health officials say.

According to health officials, the children who are not vaccinated are located in Central Uganda, followed by the Eastern part of the country. The highest number of unvaccinated children, over three hundred thousand, are located in Kampala. Health officials say these children who have not been immunized against any type of polio are most at risk to get infected.

Dr Alfred Driwale, the programme manager of the Uganda National Expanded Programme of Immunization (UNEPI), says the ongoing outbreak poses a threat to all unvaccinated children, the biggest number being in Kampala.

According to the 2015 Immunization Act, any person who without lawful excuse, refuses to take a child for immunization, faces a six-month jail sentence or a monetary fine of 240,000 Uganda Shillings. Also, the education system is supposed to only allow fully vaccinated children into the primary school cycle.

Driwale says while such laws exist, some parents are still hesitant to take their children to get vaccinated.

“Most parents do not want to take their children for immunization because of religious reasons,” says Dr Driwale, adding that the parents think the vaccine will kill their children or make them impure.

Following the recent declaration of vaccine derived polio, the health ministry has organised a polio vaccination campaign that is scheduled to take place in October 2021.

Dr Immaculate Ampaire, the deputy director of UNEPI, says they have organised the campaign because they suspect the number of children at risk of being infected with polio is higher than the two million who have never been vaccinated.

“When Type two polio was eradicated in 2015, we stopped giving children the trivalent polio vaccines,” she said. “We now give only two vaccines to protect against Type 1 and 3 polio. So we have many children who are not protected against Type 2 polio. We estimate this number might be as high as 4.7 million children.”

Following the global eradication of Type 2- vaccine derived polio, the World Health Organisation recommended the use of bivalent polio vaccines to protect against polio type 1 and 3.

All types of polio lead to paralysis. According to scientists, at least one in every 200 infected persons can become paralyzed.

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