By Mulengera Reporters
At the instigation of the leadership at the Wandegeya-based MoH, the Government of Uganda has taken a decision to roll out a mass anti-malaria vaccination campaign in the country beginning the next month of April this very year.
It will be mandatory for all babies to receive their first malaria vaccination dose at 6 months. According to Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the mass vaccination intervention will help to significantly diminish the high malaria disease burden that has been afflicting mainly Uganda’s young children for all these years.
Gratefully, with support of partners like the global vaccine alliance Gavi, a total of 2,278,000 doses are already in the country and already being distributed for utilisation at the health facilities across the country. It will all cost up to $8.9m (or Shs33bn). Some of this cash (roughly Shs12.3bn) is coming from the GoU, as the partners provide the rest.
Apac district, which has the highest malaria prevalence rate in Uganda, is where the nationwide vaccination exercise will be commenced from. A total of 105 districts will initially be covered with the 2.3m doses which will be administered to all eligible Ugandan children but in a phased manner.
The four-phased vaccination intervention will begin at 6 months of the baby’s life on earth, be followed up with a 2nd dose at seven months, 3rd one at eight months and the final booster (4th) dose to be administered when the baby is 18 months which basically is one and half years.
Uganda’s bold step to emulate other countries like Kenya, Ghana and Malawi which commenced such mass malaria vaccination years earlier, has been welcomed and celebrated by global hsalth sector leaders like UNICEF’s Country Representative for Uganda Dr. Robin Nandy and Senior Country Manager for Gavi Billie Nieuwenhuys.
Dr. Nandy says the mass vaccination will complement on the progress so far registered through other malaria mitigation and prevention measures the country has been undertaking over the years. Nandy adds that prevention approaches like popularizing and giving out free mosquito nets and insecticide spraying shouldn’t be abandoned too. They should co-exist side by side with vaccination.
The UNICEF boss is optimistic that Uganda, which previously did very well rolling back vaccine-preventable diseases like hepatitis, meningitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and polio, will equally succeed against malaria, with support of its partners. All this will enhance all the other public health efforts and initiatives aimed at safeguarding lives of the country’s young and most vulnerable children while enabling them to grow healthy and thrive into adulthood.
Nieuwenhuys observes that rolling out such a vaccination campaign on such a large scale speaks volumes about Uganda’s reputation as a country that is determined to diminish and overcome all vaccine-preventable diseases. That it’s only through such interventions that the country’s most vulnerable children will sustainably be protected into a more secure future.
The Gavi boss also asserts that effectively combating malaria and kicking it out of people’s homes will save tens of thousands of lives that annually get lost through malaria-related incidents. Permanently mitigating against malaria will also improve on the economic wellbeing of Ugandan households while at the same time significantly lessening the malaria disease burden across Uganda.
Aceng, along with others in the health ministry’s top leadership, is convinced that once all eligible children take out the four doses as prescribed, malaria will be kicked out of Uganda and thereby significantly lowering on related deaths. The idea is to gradually make Uganda malaria-free through a multi-pronged strategy which combines the different prevention measures as opposed to exclusively depending on one.
Globally, Uganda will be the 19th country to roll out such a grand massive malaria vaccination exercise and the rolling out of the ARRA 21 malaria vaccine is indicative of the extent to which the Museveni government is determined to make Uganda malaria-free. It’s 2.3m doses that is going to be rolled out or administered, and insistence to mandatorily have all eligible children covered, makes this the largest anti-malarial vaccination roll out globally.
In the three aforementioned African countries (Kenya, Ghana & Malawi), a combined total of 2m children have so far been vaccinated. So, Uganda’s targeted 2.3m children to be vaccinated is simply the world’s largest single malaria vaccination campaign in one country.
Aceng says that every parent with an eligible child should take advantage of the upcoming malaria vaccination because everything will be rendered free of charge as the entire cost has been covered and met by the GoU and its partners.
The Minister, herself a specialist in children health, says that malaria must be taken seriously by all Ugandans because in our country, it remains the leading cause of illness and death especially among children aged under 5 years and among pregnant women. That daily, Uganda loses 16 lives to malaria and 10 of these are children under 5 years of age. The Minister says that the GoU is determined to reverse this unacceptable trend but individual Ugandan parents must play their part too-by enthusiastically taking part in the forthcoming malaria vaccination campaign.
And available statistics indicates that Ugandans have no option but to collectively work with the MoH, while supporting its efforts, to ensure that our country becomes malaria-free. Short of that, there will be no winners in the immediate, midterm and long term. It remains very intriguing to learn that, as reported by UNICEF, annually not less than 20,000 young lives are lost due to malaria-related causes.
Actually, malaria-related cases account for between 30% and 50% of all outpatient cases coming to Uganda’s hospitals and health facilities; 15-20% of hospital admissions and up to 20% of inpatient deaths. Globally, Uganda is ranked 3rd malaria-most afflicted country. It’s only Nigeria and DR Congo that have higher malaria-related deaths than Uganda.
But gratefully, the GoU, through its Ministry of Health, is determined to have this trend reversed but every Ugandan father, mother, parent and guardian with a minor under their care must play their part too by embracing the upcoming mass vaccination exercise, besides encouraging others to do the same. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
