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Polio Vaccination Campaign Starts in Moroto

The campaign in Moroto targets 27,627 out of 1.3 million children.
Health workers moving door to door vaccinating children in Lotisan sub-county

Audio 1

Moroto Health Department has commenced a four-day polio vaccination exercise targeting children below five years.  

This is part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

The nationwide door-to-door vaccination campaign started on Thursday, in sub-regions including Busoga, Bukedi, Mbale, Sebei, Teso, and Karamoja.

The campaign in Moroto targets 27,627 out of 1.3 million children.

According to Health Officials, Uganda is at a high risk of a Polio outbreak and possible importation from neighbouring countries due to porous borders and free movement of people. They also add that the Kenyan counterparts are also carrying out the vaccination exercise to avert the importation of the polio disease.

At the start of the campaign, our reporter found out that children were left alone at home to wait for vaccines while parents had gone to different areas to look for money and food. 

The health workers could be seen struggling to determine the age of the children especially those who fall between 4 and 7 years old. They also found it hard to demarcate the households that were already vaccinated as children kept following the health team and getting vaccinated on the spot.

Lomuria Lotee, the Village Health Team member in Lokitelakapel Village, Lotisan sub-county said that he mobilized over 600 children who are eligible for the polio vaccine.

Lotee noted that although the parents were positive about the exercise, some of them moved with the children to the kraals and others to the mining sites despite the call to stay home.  He said that the health team shall have to follow the children to the kraals to ensure they are all covered. 

Lotee said that it was also difficult to determine the age of the children since there were no parents to guide them. He added that some of the parents did not know the age of their children since they do not keep birth records.

"You cannot differentiate between the child of 5 and 7 years, all of them are just the same and even their parents do not know when their children were born, so we are just doing guesswork," Lotee said.

Anna Mary Natuk, one of the parents from Kidepo village in Lotisan sub-county applauded the government for the vaccine that will protect their children against disability.

She noted that disabled children in the Karamojong community are less valued and sometimes they are treated unfairly.

Natuk said that they would not wish to have disabled children in the community because they are less productive.

‘’Caring for a disabled child is the more frustrating especially when you do not have money, for example, if the child cannot walk, you may need a very expensive wheelchair" Natuk explained.

Vincent Muron, the Lotisan Sub County supervisor of the Polio mass campaign, said that they have made sure that all the hard-to-reach areas such as kraals and mining sites are covered so that no child is left behind.

Muron noted that they have scrutinized about 16 big kraals for the vaccination exercise and all of them shall be covered. He said that the health team shall have to camp in the kraals for about three days to vaccinate the children.

Muron explained that even the children who were already immunized with the polio vaccine under routine must also get the ongoing dose irrespective of the vaccination status.

Despite, the positive response from the community, Muron highlighted some of the challenges such as the lack of transport for dispersing the health team to hard-to-reach areas.

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