By Mulengera Reporters
On realizing it was Idi, the Ministry of Finance and other organizers of the Service Excellence Exhibition at Kololo run media announcements Monday evening postponing the commencement of the event from Tuesday to Wednesday. The announcement urged the public to stay away and begin flocking Kololo on Wednesday.
Either the message came too late or people were simply too desperate for some of the services anticipated at Kololo; Ugandans defied the Monday evening message and nevertheless found their way at Kololo on Tuesday which was Idi day.
Mulengera News has since established that this defiance had to do with desire to access some of the free medical services government last year offered at Kololo (through the MoH) as part of the Service Excellence Exhibition. As early as 9am, hundreds of Ugandans had already camped at Kololo waiting for the NMS and MoH teams to come and administer to them especially the yellow fever vaccination free of charge.
Accessing free yellow fever vaccination makes a huge difference because ordinarily that all-important vaccine would cost one Shs150,000-covering both the vaccination and the yellow fever card certifying that one was vaccinated.
In today’s Uganda, yellow fever card is a very essential document because it’s one of the very critical requirements for those young people trying their luck on kyeyo in the Middle Eastern countries or even Europe. “It’s as essential as the passport itself and Shs150,000 is a lot of money of many of us who have never got any employment since graduating from campus,” says Jonah Mugerwa one of the many young people we found at Kololo anxiously waiting for the NMS/MoH vaccination teams.
Gratefully before knowing Tuesday would be Idi day, the NMS teams had already set up the yellow fever pavilion at Kololo and its where hundreds of young people congregated Tuesday morning and at the end of the day, the small group of staff management was able to organize and call upon at short notice were able to vaccinate over 700 people with the yellow fever dose.
Yellow fever isn’t one of the routine vaccinations that are regularly offered at medical facilities which partly explains why Ugandans take the Kololo opportunity with enthusiasm. NMS General Manager Moses Kamabare explains that, whereas their intention was to stay for a very short time offering the yellow fever vaccination, they are trying to improvise to see how to stay longer to vaccinate larger numbers.
Kamabare says last year alone during the inaugural exhibition, they vaccinated over 90,000 Ugandans and issued them with yellow fever cards. He explains that they initially went out jokingly but were overwhelmed to realize the huge demand for yellow fever vaccination. “We originally had planned to stay for a short time because of the vastness of our work elsewhere but organizers [URA] asked us to stay longer and in the end we stayed at Kololo for two weeks and we still couldn’t manage the numbers that kept growing. We had to relocate to Namboole for another 2 weeks and in the end, we stayed out for a full month and covered 90,000 people in total,” recalls Kamabare.
Desire to make health-related inquiries or even access services like yellow fever vaccination accounts for more than 60% of the crowd turning up at Kololo for participation in the Service Excellence Exhibition. Kamabare says for this year’s case, they are anticipating to vaccinate a minimum of 700 people per day and says they would have desired to reach out to many more people but they are resource-constrained because it costs Shs150,000 to vaccinate just one person.
Gratefully (unlike others like Hepatitis B), yellow fever is a one off vaccination done once in a life time. But Kamabare explains that it’s something every Ugandan needs to undertake even without having any plans to travel abroad where having the vaccination card is mandatory. He explains that Uganda receives thousands of refugees coming and in most cases these aren’t vaccinated (from countries like DRC, South Sudan etc). They freely interact with Ugandans and if some of them carried the yellow fever virus, many people are going to be infected on coming into contact with him or her. And one is only safe if they had been vaccinated.
Kamabare recalls the devastation a yellow fever outbreak caused in parts of Kabale some 3 years ago when refugees spread yellow fever like a bush fire engulfing an entire Sub County. World Health Organization (WHO) had to intervene with a grant that enabled GoU to procure adequate medication which Kamabare says is very expensive. He says that Kabale incidence led to realization that (uncommon as it is) yellow fever wasn’t a simple virus as previously thought. “It’s curable but treatment is very expensive for many of our ordinary people to afford. That’s why the best thing to do is to go for vaccination regardless of whether one is planning to travel abroad or not,” Kamabare says.
He adds having yellow fever card is more important in travelling than even the visa because even EAC countries like Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania will insist on the yellow fever vaccination even when they are visa-free. Unfortunately, refugees flocking into Uganda aren’t required to have proof of yellow fever vaccination because their coming is considered an emergency and they are permitted free access on humanitarian grounds. Since refugees won’t be stopping coming to Uganda, the best Ugandans can do is to get yellow fever vaccinated just in case.
Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine says even when they are already overstretched after Namugongo where they offered all sorts of medical services (including emergency ones), her teams will be at hand at Kololo to offer many other services including general testing and medical check up to those requiring them. She says the teams that have been drawn from several hospitals will be at hand to also offer Hepatitis B vaccination and counseling among other services. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
