By Kabuye Ronald
Parents and Care givers of Children with disabilities have been urged to embrace and take the children for immunization against yellow fever in the ongoing free nationwide Yellow Fever Vaccination Campaign that started from Tuesday 2nd until April 8, covering 53 districts across Uganda.
The call was made by Ruth Nalugya, the Executive Director for Spina bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Uganda (SHAU), after receiving numerous calls from the parents and care givers of children with disability who were afraid about the negative propaganda surrounding vaccination thinking that if their children are vaccinated they would die.
Nalugya who first met some of the care givers in the morning, gave the public assurance that the vaccine has gone through rigorous testing by the World Health Organization WHO and other responsible agencies and thus it is very safe for everyone from one to sixty years including children and adults with disabilities.
Yellow fever is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes that bite mostly during the day
Available research by WHO indicates that yellow fever infections can cause serious illness and, in up to 30–60 per cent of severe cases, death. There are no specific therapeutics to treat the disease, but early supportive care increases survival rates. Crucially, there is a vaccine against yellow fever, and it is safe, highly effective and only a single dose is needed for life-long protection.
According to WHO, Uganda is a high-risk country for yellow fever transmission due to less than 10 per cent of the population being immunized against it, with sporadic outbreaks occurring every 3 to 5 years. The recent confirmed cases have been reported from near urban areas, such as Kampala. Around 24 per cent of Ugandans (approximately 44 million in total), live in urban areas with roughly half of those living in slums. Urban outbreaks of yellow fever in densely populated areas with low.
Nalugya emphasized to the public especially care givers of children with disabilities to take them for vaccination since their health gets compromised very easily hence if not vaccinated against yellow fever it may pose another burden to them.
“Please be rest assured that nothing will happen to our children and I know government has made proper arrangements to ensure that health professionals will cater for the special needs of our children to make sure that nothing wrong happens to them.
I encourage the care givers to explain the status of their children since some disabilities or health conditions are invisible thus a need to explain to the health workers administering the vaccine to handle them responsibly and professionally. Find out whether the children are not malnourished or on strong medication that might contradict with the vaccine.” Said Nalugya
Nalugya however, called upon government and health workers to make arrangements of administering the yellow fever vaccine to children with disabilities from their institutionalized homes where they are kept just as it is with schools and prisons since it is very costly and hard a task to fetch them to vaccinating centers. She as well urged schools to inform parents about the ongoing vaccination campaign so that they provide the right and necessary information to them rather than hiding it from them or presuming that they know about it since not every parent has access to the medium of communication.
It should be noted that, the yellow fever vaccine is being provided free of charge and is accessible to all individuals aged between 1 and 60 years. However, pregnant women, breast feeding mothers, babies less than 9 months old, anyone undergoing immunosuppressive/ radiation therapy and organ transplant recipients taking immunosuppressive drugs, all those who have undergone organ transplant within two years, individuals aged above 60 years, individuals allergic to eggs and ill patients suffering from AIDS are advised against receiving the vaccine.
