Uganda declared Polio-free again

Uganda and three other African countries- Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan have been declared free of Polio again. The countries, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) have not reported any cases of polio for over a year.

“Today the Horn of Africa marks one year of being polio-free following an outbreak of polio in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan between 2008 and 2009,” WHO said in a statement last week.

Giving the four countries a clean bill of health on the eradication of polio, WHO said the region had responded fast to the outbreak and gone back to their polio-free status.

They now join neighbouring Somalia which has been polio free for the last three years. Although Uganda had previously been declared polio-free, the disease re-emerged in 2008, mostly from Sudan and eastern DR Congo.

Polio is a highly-infectious viral disease, which mainly affects children.
The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system.

Many infected people have no symptoms, but do excrete the virus in their faeces, hence transmitting it to others. Symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs.

In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis-which is often permanent. Polio can only be prevented by immunisation.

Massive campaigns
The Ministry of Health has over the years run massive polio immunisation campaigns targeting children under five. Uganda has already been declared free of Guinea worm and Small Pox diseases that once devastated large communities across the country.