Kween 6 May, 2015:- Uganda commemorated the 5th African Vaccination Week (AVW) with a call to parents and guardians to immunize their children early and adhere to the immunization schedule.

The national commemoration was held in Kween district, eastern Uganda which is one of the districts with poor immunization indicators. It was thus an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of immunization in this district.   The Chairperson of Kween District Local Council Hon. Paul Machijan who was the guest of honour urged his people to embrace immunization which is a sure way to guarantee good health for all people particularly children. He thus reiterated government’s commitment to support immunization and fight poverty noting that fighting diseases is crucial in ensuring that people are healthy and able to work for social and economic development of the country.

Dr. Emmanuel Tenywa Emmanuel an immunization expert from the World Health Organization Country Office reported that Kween, Bukwo, Sironko, and Bulamburi have inaccessible immunization services which places them in category four of the Reach Every District (RED ) strategy indicating that they suffer from a high dropout rate on the immunization schedule and low coverage of the immunization services. He singled out awareness creation as one of the critical interventions to address this problem. Dr Tenywa reaffirmed the United Nation’s commitment to support immunization programs until all eligible children receive the free, safe and effective life-saving vaccines they dissever and is a human right.

The Programme Manager of the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization (UNEPI) Dr Robert Mayanja appealed to parents to take their children for Immunization and ensure that they get all the nine vaccines on Uganda’s immunization schedule.  Later this year, the vaccines will increase to eleven with the introduction of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) and the roll-out of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Dr Mayanja revealed that one of the strategies the Ministry of Health is going to implement to further increase immunization coverage is registration of all children below five years in their villages. These records will be used by health teams to follow up all children as a way of reducing the drop-out rate.

The African Vaccination Week is an annual opportunity through which governments strengthen advocacy for immunization to improve immunization service delivery and reduce the burden of vaccine preventable diseases  This objective was realised in Kween and other parts of the country through implementation of week-long activities that included validation of Acute Flaccid Paralysis cases, social mobilization for immunization services, visits to rural health centers for support supervision and advocacy meetings with leaders and  implementing partners from various districts. In Kween,   AVW commemoration, good mobilization for immunization was demonstrated by the high number of district, religious and cultural leaders and above all community members who attended the function. Government officials, the UN family, civil society organizations and implementing partners also graced the occasion.

Role played by the World Health Organization in Immunization

Immunization is one of the priority WHO programmes in Uganda and in that regards the organization has setup and continuously supports regional Integrated Diseases Surveillance Risks (IDRS) desk in all regional referral hospitals to monitor disease outbreaks.  WHO has also provided training, transport, computers and other office equipment to ensure that IDRS is effectively done throughout the country.

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For more information, please contact:

Mwebembezi Edmond, Public Information Officer
Tel.:+256 414 335569
Cell: +256 782 962674
Email: mwembembezie [at] who.int

Below:

01. Dr. Eva Kabwongera UNICEF  Dr. Emmanuel Tenywa WHO and Colleen Staatz UNICEF delivering remarks on behalf the UN family

02. Dr. Robert Mayanja, Program Manager UNEPI delivering remarks on behalf of the Director General of Health Services

03. Popular musicians from Kween district entertain guests at the function and called upon parents to take their children for immunization

04. The Guest of Honour Kween District Chairperson Hon. Paul Machijan immunizes a child against polio at the AVW commemoration day