The system will be able deployed in all parts of the country and will be able to detect future epidemics in the country. As part of the new system, health workers and members of the community will be able to report suspicious diseases early which will then be monitored by epidemiologist at the command center in Kampala
Data from WHO shows that only three countries; South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia have already met the target while two other countries, Seychelles and Comoros are on point. The countries doing well have been able to vaccinate many people by securing vaccines directly and not relying on donations
The health ministry says that evidence shows that recovered COVID-19 patients do not need to get vaccinated as fast as other groups because they develop natural immunity in the form of antibodies.
According to health ministry officials, the available vaccines will be used to fully vaccinate 150,000 people who are in organized groups. Groups that are being targeting for to get the vaccine include; soldiers, persons working in organizations or those belonging to associations of persons with co-morbidities
Samalie Namukose, the Assistant Commissioner for Nutrition in the Health Ministry, says that the available regulations are weak and obsolete. She says that with the influx of breast milk substitutes, there is need for tougher laws to dissuade manufacturers and distributors from dumping their products on the Ugandan market.
With less than 1.6 million people who have received atleast one jab of a COVID-19 vaccine, the government sis undecided on which people should receive the China's Sinovac vaccine doses that were recently donated to the country
According to the World Health Organization-WHO, this is the highest number of deaths that have been recorded in Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year.
Scientists say the variant is responsible for the high number of infections, severe forms of the disease and deaths that have been registered during the second wave. According to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, in the month of June, over 30,000 infections of the disease have been reported. This number is almost half of the total number of infections that have been reported in the country since last year in March. More than 300 people have succumbed to the disease in the second wave
mRNA technology is a new type of vaccine development where the body is taught or tricked to make proteins that trigger immune responses inside our bodies, which protects people from getting infected. Old vaccine technologies on the other hand, work by introducing a weakened or inactivated germ into the body.
The rise in the number of C-sections is a concern to doctors. They say that while a caesarean birth can be an essential and life-saving surgery, it can put women and babies at unnecessary risk of short-and long-term health problems if performed when there is no medical need.
According to WHO, less than 5 percent of the entire continent has received one jab of the vaccines. However, due to global vaccine shortages of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, many countries cannot issue second doses
The experts say that the 2018 World Health Organisation approved mosquito nets are only able to offer protection against malaria for two months, after which they are likely to become ineffective.
The approval means that the vaccine can now be supplied through the COVAX facility and also be used by countries after assessments were carried out on its efficacy. This is the fifth vaccine to be approved for use following Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, AstraZeneca and Pfizer's approvals that came earlier.
Although the government had initially said that the doses would cover 482,000 People, with each getting two injections spaced between eight weeks, the plan was later revised, to allow more people to get the first dose. But soon after the change, the Serum Institute of India, announced the halting of vaccine exports to first, serve their domestic market.
According to the health ministry, on average vaccines worth Ugx 6.5 billion are wasted annually during routine immunization. However, with a shortage of funds and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, health workers are being advised to open vaccine vials once a minimum of 10 people have registered for vaccination
According to WHO many vaccines under production might not have an effect on the variant and as such vaccination cannot be stopped. With Pfizer and Astraenca vaccines having similar results, the UN health agency wants African countries to disregard findings from studies and continue with planned vaccinations
While this means that trials that were halted on Tuesday can now continue, WHO officials say that it is unlikely the vaccine will be ready for use by the end of the year
The last case of wild poliovirus in the region was detected in 2016 in Nigeria. Since 1996, polio eradication efforts have prevented up to 1.8 million children from crippling life-long paralysis and saved approximately 180,000 lives. The viral disease is transmitted from person to person, mainly through a faecal-oral route or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food, and multiplies inside the intestines.
The six cases were part of 2,048 samples that were tested yesterday for the disease. Four of the confirmed cases were contacts from Busia, Malaba,Amuru and Kyotera district while two cases are from the Mutukula and Malaba points of entry.
