The Ministry of Health has said the mass vaccination for children aged five and below against the deadly strain of polio virus circulating in the country will be done in December 2021.
The mass vaccination which will be house-to-house comes after the government received 10 million doses targeting 8.5 million children.
Uganda was declared polio free in 2010, but a recent environmental survey at Lubigi sewage plant identified another polio virus in various samples.
Dr. Brian Kisembo the acting health officer for Kabarole district says the immunization is a preventive measure against a new strain of a polio virus. The house to house campaign targeting children below five years will run from 3rd December.
Speaking to Jubilee Radio, Kisembo noted that the process of training health workers to undertake the exercise is soon beginning in the entire district hence appeals to parents to embrace the exercise.
Ministry of health says there is dare need because South Sudan and DR Congo are always declaring outbreaks and scientists picked samples from sewage plants of Bugolobi and Lubigi in Kampala in June 2021 for laboratory analysis.
According to government some of the analysis was done at UVRI but the final analysis was done in a laboratory in South Africa which on July 21 2021 confirmed the presence of the deadly polio strain in Uganda.
