Mukono: Yesterday Uganda Joined Rest of the World to commemorate World Polio Day , an Event organized by Ministry of Health and Rotary International, Various activities were involved such as vaccinating various vaccinable diseases ,
Celebrations took place at Mukono Healthy Centre III Under their “Theme One Day, One Focus, Ending Polio.”
Minister of Primary Health Care Hon. Margaret Muhanga was the Chief Guest and the celebrations also attracted number of dignitaries from Ministry of Health, Local Government and other parts of the World.
World Polio Day was established by Rotarians to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, The developer of a Polio Vaccine.
Polio Vaccination breakthrough occurred in 1949, when poliovirus was successfully cultivated in human tissue by John Enders, Thomas Weller and Frederick Robbins at Boston Children’s Hospital. Their pioneering work was recognized with the 1954 Nobel PrizeNot long afterwards, in the early 1950s, the first successful vaccine was created by US physician Jonas Salk. Salk tested his experimental killed-virus vaccine on himself and his family in 1953, and a year later on 1.6 million children in Canada, Finland and the USA
In 1979 Rotary International started a multi-year project to immunise 6 million children in the Philippines.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio – to achieve its permanent reduction to zero, with no risk of reintroduction – and in the same year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was launched.
Uganda’s struggle of overcoming Poliovirus
Uganda has a long history of Polio and it has significant worked tirelessness to eradicate the virus, Uganda launched UNEPI, Uganda National Extended Program for Immunisation to counter the challenge of Polio and other Communicable and Non-communicable diseases.
Eradication Programs.
Uganda just like any other countries, It joined the struggle to eliminate polio especially through sensitization and house to house Vaccination Campaigns, The Global Polio Eradication Initiative GPEI has been working in partnership with Uganda Government and UNICEF to strengthen the effort of Vaccination, Sensitisation, Surveillance and Prevention of the spread of Poliovirus
Uganda has been among the Countries that declared polio-free by the World Health Organization WHO after a sustained period without reported cases of wild poliovirus transmission.
Polio Transmission Interruptions, Over the past years, Uganda was battling with the challenges, the country was evolving from civils wars, Poverty and Poor Healthy systems, Countering the challenge was a combination of routine Vaccinations, Data Surveillance and detections and counter of Potential Outbreaks, Despite the progress, Uganda has remained vigilant on Polio outbreak.
Additional last week, Ministry of Health Declared that it will conduct a targeted house-to house Polio Immunization campaign from 20th to 30th January 2023 targeting Children below 5 years of age with “Oral Polio Vaccine (nOPV2) in five (5) districts that were affected by the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak. The Districts are Mubende, Kassanda, Mukono, Kampala, Mubende, Wakiso.
Doctor Kyabayinze Daniel said while addressing the press at Media Centre-Kampala.
He added, the aim of a campaign is to interrupt the transmission of polio virus among children below 5 years in these districts that missed out previous National Polio Immunization campaign that was conducted in November 2022 due to Ebola outbreak in the same vein, This campaign will be implemented in Kampala Starting from 17th-19th February 2023.
Polio is a highly infectious Viral that affects Children under the age of five.”
By: Adolph Muhumuza