Government withdraws measles vaccine
What you need to know:
- Initiative. Government says they are replacing the measles vaccine with the new measles-rubella vaccine.
- Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the public relations officer at the Ministry of Health, said the Health Minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, will advise on how other Ugandans that missed out will access the vaccine.
The Ministry of Health is set to withdraw all the measles vaccines distributed in all the health facilities countrywide.
The vaccines will be replaced by the new measles- rubella vaccine in the routine immunisation, which are believed to be more effective in the fight against the two deadly viral infections against children.
“We are replacing a single dose with two. Measles is alone and now it is going to be measles with rubella and since we are combining the two to cover in one single injection, there will be no need for the single injection,” Dr Alfred Driwale, the programme manager at Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (UNEPI), said yesterday.
Dr Driwale observed that currently, there are a few stock of measles vaccine which will be reclaimed for safe disposal.
“The removal or withdraw is not a big issue, we managed the stock so we are left with few stock, which will be retrieved for safe disposal,” he added.
This month, government embarked on the mass new measles-rubella and polio vaccination campaign targeting more than 18 million following the outbreak of measles and rubella in more than 60 districts.
This was in response to calls by Parliament for government to intervene and address the measles’ outbreak that had culminated in the closure of schools
At Mulago National Referral Hospital, government has created a measles-rubella and polio immunisation desk to cater for parents and guardians whose children missed out on the vaccination during the campaign.
Health ministry responds
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the public relations officer at the Ministry of Health, said the Health Minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, will advise on how other Ugandans that missed out will access the vaccine.
National Medical Stores (NMS) said they have at least authorised 300,000 doses of new measles-rubella vaccine and currently do not have any doses of the measles vaccine.
“By the time they started the phasing out of measles vaccine, we were completely at zero in terms of measles vaccine, I think it was well planned, we had already distributed the rest to the facilities,” Mr Dan Kimosho, the public relations officer at NMS, said yesterday.
Since 2016, a total of 296,304 suspected measles cases have been reported. As of 2019, at least 770 cases of measles have been confirmed in 131 districts while 294 cases of rubella were confirmed.
