Amuru gets 200 bicycles for Polio fight

Mar 09, 2009

A total of 200 bicycles have been donated by Unicef to Amuru district to help in the fight against polio.

By Chris Ocowun

A total of 200 bicycles have been donated by Unicef to Amuru district to help in the fight against polio.

The bicycles are to be used by the village health team volunteers to mobilise the internally displaced persons to take their children aged below five years for the emergency mass polio immunisation slated for today.

The health ministry, the World Health Organisation and other development partners decided to bring closer the date for the mass immunisation to March 10 due to the increasing cases of polio in the district.

Other districts will be conducting immunisation on March 21- 23.
According to the district director for health services, Dr. Patrick Odong, there would be one immunisation post at Bibia Health Centre III near the border for compulsory immunisation of children and adults from Southern Sudan who have never been immunised.

Odong said those who refused to be immunised would be denied entry into Uganda, adding that two more polio cases had been reported in Labongagali displaced persons camp.

The preliminary results from the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe showed that the two were infected with the wild polio virus.
Odong said some of the signs and symptoms of the wild polio virus include fever, vomiting and weakness of the limbs.

He said the ministry delivered the vaccine on March 5. The vaccine was being stored in Gulu district since Amuru did not have proper refrigeration facilities.

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