KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda has launched a nationwide yellow fever vaccination campaign to protect its citizens from a long-standing threat of the mosquito-borne disease.
Dr Michael Baganiji, head of immunization at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, said that by the end of April, Ugandan authorities had vaccinated 12.2 million people out of a target population of 14 million.
Baganiji said as per international health regulations, Uganda will henceforth require all travellers to the country to have a yellow fever vaccination card.
Ugandan officials hope the mandate will encourage more people to get vaccinated against yellow fever amid a climate of vaccination reluctance that health workers fear in the East African country.
The single dose of the vaccine was provided free of charge to Ugandans aged between one and 60. Vaccination centres in the capital, Kampala, and elsewhere included schools, universities, hospitals and local government facilities.
Previously, Ugandans paid the equivalent of $27 at private clinics to get vaccinated against yellow fever.
Uganda, with a population of 45 million, is one of 27 countries on the African continent classified as at high risk for yellow fever, which infects about 200,000 people and kills 30,000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization.
The most recent outbreak in Uganda was reported in Buikwe and Buvuma districts in the central region earlier this year.
Yellow fever is caused by a virus that is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Most infected people are asymptomatic. Symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, according to the WHO.
Uganda's vaccination program is part of a global strategy launched in 2017 by WHO and partners including the United Nations Children's Fund to eliminate yellow fever by 2026. The goal is to protect about 1 billion people in Africa and the Americas.
A mid-term evaluation of the strategy, whose results were published last year, found that 185 million people in high-risk African countries would have been vaccinated by August 2022.
In Uganda, most people travelling to countries such as South Africa that require proof of vaccination on arrival are vaccinated against yellow fever.
James Odite, a nurse who works at a private hospital designated as a vaccination center on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala, told The Associated Press that hundreds of doses of the vaccine remained unused after the yellow fever vaccination campaign ended and will be used in future mass campaigns.
Among the issues raised by those hesitant to get vaccinated was the question, “Does the government want to administer expired vaccines?”, Odite said.
Baganizi, the immunization officer, said Uganda's government is investing in community “sensitization” sessions in which officials tell people that the vaccine saves lives.
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