After a decade of not accessing Yellow fever vaccines through the Public sector, residents of Lira district are excited about a new delivery made by the Ministry of Health.
On January 7th, 2023, the Ministry delivered 412,320 doses of Yellow Fever Vaccines. The district last conducted yellow vaccination in 2010.
The vaccines will be used during the fourth coming mass campaign against yellow fever following an outbreak in the West Nile sub-region in the last few years.
The vaccination campaign will target the population starting with children from nine months and adults of 60 years.
Over the years, a number of people from Lira have been accessing vaccines on a cash-and-carry basis from private healthcare providers both within and outside Lira.
Dr. Patrick Buchan Ocen, the Lira District Health Officer-DHO, who said the first consignment of about 3,000 doses was delivered in October 2022, explains that Lira has not been participating in the mass yellow fever vaccination campaign because it was never among the endemic districts in the country.
Dr. Ocen who said the yellow fever vaccination uptake in the country is low rallied people to take up the vaccines as soon as the campaign kicks off saying there is no definite treatment for yellow fever once one gets infected.
“This is an opportunity because many countries bordering have been insisting that when you are getting out of Uganda into Kenya or Rwanda, you must present a Yellow Fever vaccination card because Uganda is considered a high-risk country in the region in the strategy for elimination of Yellow fever disease,” he said.
Tom Onyuti, a resident of Akitenino Village in Lira City West Division, says that he was forced to pay Shillings 50,000 to a private health facility in Kampala to acquire a yellow fever vaccination in 2017 when he qualified to go to Dar-es- salaam and Arusha for a Darts tournament.
Onyuti is excited that with the availability of the vaccines at lower health facilities, residents will not spend money and more time looking for the vaccines.
Similarly, Filbert Oketch a businessman in Lira City said the availability of vaccines is of paramount importance especially after paying more money in private clinics to get a vaccination card without necessarily being vaccinated simply to help him cross the border.
Yellow fever is an epidemic-prone mosquito-borne vaccine-preventable disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted to humans by the bites of infected Aedes and Haemagogus mosquitoes.
Once contracted, the yellow fever virus incubates in the body for 3 to 6 days and although the majority of infections are asymptomatic, when symptoms occur, the most common are fever, muscle pain with prominent backache, headache, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting.