COVID-19: 20% babies miss immunisation
Jun 18, 2020
As Ugandans struggle to survive despite the various restrictions on movement, which were instituted to curb the spread of COVID-19, it has emerged that at least 20% of the babies a year old and below have missed out on immunisation.
By Cecilia Okoth
As Ugandans struggle to survive despite the various restrictions on movement, which were instituted to curb the spread of COVID-19, it has emerged that at least 20% of the babies a year old and below have missed out on immunisation.
According to health ministry statistics, immunisation services are currently under pressure across the country, causing a 20% drop in number of children receiving DPT-3. The diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT) vaccine is given via injection in the left upper thigh at six weeks, 10 weeks and the third dose at 14 weeks.
The third dose (DPT-3) is a widely used indicator of the performance of countries' routine immunisation services. In Uganda WHO/UNICEF, 2014 estimated that immunisation coverage for DPT-3 was only 52%.
Briefing the nation on Uganda's response to COVID-19 on Saturday, health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said immunisation, antenatal care as well as health facility deliveries were among essential healthcare
services that have dropped since Uganda first registered its first COVID-19 case on March 21.
However, when New Vision visited some hospitals around Kampala, many parents were stranded and were eventually sent away because hospitals did not have some of the vaccines they required.
"I was told to return after my baby makes nine months for the measles-rubella vaccine. This is the second health facility
that has sent me away saying the vaccine is out of stock," a parent said.
Dr. Sabrina Kitaka, a senior pediatrician at Mulago Hospital, said DPT3 is given to the baby at 14 weeks when babies also
A child being immunised in Kampala recently receive the pneumococcal vaccine. She said children who do not complete the vaccines are at a risk of getting pneumonia, meningitis and even tetanus as they grow.
"It is worrying and a major concern. I hope that moving forward parents will be mobilised to complete the vaccines, for the betterment of their children's lives," Kitaka said.
ANTENATAL CARE DROPS
While antenatal care attendance decreased by 7% between March and April, compared with the same period in 2019, mostly in the northern and southwestern regions, there was a 10% decline in deliveries at health facilities between March and April 2020 compared to the same period last year.
Aceng, however, said services regarding tuberculosis and malaria seem to be uninterrupted by the lockdown measures.
She attributed this to health partners, who quickly oriented themselves to handling the challenge and ensured that
patients continued to get their drugs on time.
MALARIA CASES INCREASE
The minister said the number of malaria cases, diagnosed and treated, increased by 56% between January and April 2020.
Whereas some health experts commended Uganda's COVID-19 response model, they recommended that the country being a low-income country with high burden of diseases, should not take its eyes off the other epidemic-prone diseases, which afflict its population.
The diseases according to David Lagoro Kitara, a don at Harvard University, include malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoeal diseases as well as non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
Dr. Ekwaro Obuku, the former Uganda Medical Association president, said there was a need to think about the excesses of COVID-19. "Many African countries did an early lockdown, which had good effects in terms of keeping cases low, but affected the utilisation of healthcare.
While we are keeping the infections of COVID-19 low, we have to be mindful of the other diseases and services such as immunisation," he said. Obuku said it would be difficult to assess COVID-19 in isolation.
"The coronavirus did not find a system where there was no other disease. COVID-19 can now be managed under
a disease control programme within the health ministry as the ministry concentrates on the bigger problems the
sector faces," he said.