Mukono targets 535,000 in mass Yellow Fever vaccination campaign
Catholic priest Rev Fr Daniel Balabyekkubo gestures as he receives a jab against Yellow Fever in Mukono District on April 1, 2024. PHOTO/DIPHAS KIGULI
Mukono District Monday rolled out the Yellow Fever mass vaccination campaign targeting 535,000 people in a week.
According to Dr Stephen Mulindwa, the Mukono District Health Officer (DHO), the campaign primarily targets schools and institutions of higher learning as well as select government facilities.
“People should endeavor to get this jab because our neighbouring districts have already been affected by the deadly disease…and remember that out of every 10 people affected by the disease, 5 die. So, this shows the magnitude of the problem in our communities,” Dr Mulindwa warned.
Mukono North Member of Parliament Abdallah Kiwanuka tasked district officials to clearly state categories of people likely to be affected by the vaccine, citing pregnant women, breast feeding mothers and the critically ill as endangered.
“Much as we’re mobilizing masses to participate in the campaign, medics should sensitize people on the categories of people unfit to take this jab because we don’t want to lose people after taking the jab,” Kiwanuka emphasized.
Buganda King or Kabaka’s chief in charge Kyaggwe County, Ssekiboobo Elijah Bogere Lubanga Mulembya, called on subjects to embrace vaccination.
“I want to pledge cooperation with the local government to pursue all government programmes intended to benefit locals because we serve the same communities,” he remarked.
Rev Daniel Balabyekkubo, the vicar for St Philip and Andrew’s Cathedral, Mukono pledged to mobilise Christians to get vaccinated.
Yellow fever is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes that often bite people during the day. There is no specific treatment for Yellow Fever, but experts can attend to the symptoms and conditions it presents to the victim and prevent death.
Some suspected Yellow Fever cases have so far been confirmed in the districts of Buikwe and Buvuma, but are responding well to drugs, according to Dr Mulindwa.
However, he declined to give the exact number of suspected cases so far registered in the districts.
