KCCA selling government Yellow fever vaccines

Minister Sarah Opendi. File photo

PARLIAMENT

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is selling Yellow Fever vaccines it got free of charge from the National Medical Stores (NMS), the State minister for Primary Healthcare Sarah Opendi has said.
According to Ms Opendi, the Health ministry is investigating why.

“Some colleagues have told me Kampala Capital City Authority is charging Shs150, 000, though the official figure is Shs100, 000 for the vaccine. The matter was brought to my attention yesterday,” Ms Opendi said during plenary on Tuesday, May 3.
“We [Health ministry officials] are, therefore, asking Kampala Capital City Authority asking why it is charging Shs100, 000 yet the National Medical Stores gave it the vaccine free of charge,” she added.

Ms Opendi promised to update Parliament on Wednesday, May 4 on the explanation the Health ministry would have got from KCCA.
She was responding to Budadiri West Member of Parliament Mr Nandala Mafabi who had asked the Health State minister to explain why KCCA’s Yellow Fever jabs are expensive.
Ms Opendi said it could be that some of the vaccines were sourced from private entities.
And that could have been because the government had for some months not been importing and supplying the various health facilities with the vaccine.

Kasilo county MP Mr Elijah Okupa said KCCA should be stopped from charging people for the vaccine got from NMS and that the authority should be compelled to refund people who had paid for the vaccine.

What KCCA says
However, when contacted, KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju said City Hall clinic has been administering yellow fever vaccine for the last thirty years and that the authority bought 3,000 doses NMS.
“We also bought some vaccines from a supplier called Laboret. But the number of people who need the vaccine is overwhelming,” Mr Kaujju said.

On average, Mr Kaujju said KCCA gets about 300 cases of people who need the vaccine daily.
He also dismissed claims of inflated price for the vaccine.
“It’s not true we inflated the price. We sell each vaccine at Shs100,000,” he added.

Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients. Up to 50% of severely affected persons without treatment will die from yellow fever.
According to the recent analysis, there are an estimated 84, 000–170, 000 cases and up to 60 000 deaths due to yellow fever per year worldwide.

The virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Latin America, with a combined population of over 900 million people.
The number of yellow fever cases has been decreasing over the past 10 years since the launch of Yellow Fever Initiative in 2006, according to World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO says there is no specific treatment for yellow fever. Treatment is symptomatic, aimed at reducing the symptoms for the comfort of the patient.

Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against yellow fever. The vaccine is safe, affordable, and highly effective. A single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to confer sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease and a booster dose of yellow fever vaccine is not needed. The vaccine provides effective immunity within 30 days for 99% of persons vaccinated.
In Uganda, some cases have been reported in Masaka and Bugiri. However, there are only four Yellow Fever vaccination centres in Uganda. Three of them are in Kampala and the fourth is in Wakiso district – all in central Uganda.

Over the last one month, the need for the yellow fever jabs has increased – especially among people who intend to travel – outside Uganda.

Many border officials do not allow travellers to cross countriesborders without first presenting their yellow fever vaccination cards.
WHO notes that between 2007 and 2016, 14 countries have completed preventive yellow fever vaccination campaigns: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Nigeria and Sudan have been implementing the campaigns. The Yellow Fever Initiative is financially supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Ministries of Health, and the country-level partners.