Yumbe surpasses target for Yellow Fever vaccination

HEALTH

Yumbe district surpasses both National and district targets set during the recently concluded Yellow Fever vaccination campaign after scoring 112.3%.

The Yellow Fever vaccination campaign was launched by the Ministry of Health, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Alliance on Vaccines (GAVI) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The campaign targeted 1.6 million people in six districts following an outbreak of Yellow Fever in Buliisa and four districts in West Nile, which claimed four lives in the affected districts.

The targeted high-risk districts included Koboko, Maracha, Moyo, Obongi and Yumbe.

The Ministry of Health set a target of 95%  for all districts and Yumbe as a district set  a 100% target of about 800,000 people for both nationals and refugees from the age of 9 months to 60 years.

Dr Alfred Yayi, the District Health Officer (DHO) Yumbe, confirms that, the district surpassed the targets scoring 112.3% which is excellent performance.

He added that the team spirit, cooperation and massive mobilisation exhibited by different stakeholders resulted into the great achievement.

Dr Yayi Alfred, however says, the delay to access  the funds meant for the campaign, bad access roads to the vaccination points, bad weather, reaction to the vaccine and resistance by some local community members were some of the hiccups experienced during the vaccination drive.

"The funds for this campaign were not ready by the time we started and up to the last day they were not ready, we are waiting for the cash limit to be issued by the ministry of finance but the health workers had to work tirelessly on empty stomachs and yet they had to produce results."Dr.Yayi said

According to him, a pocket of resistance from the community members was also met by the health workers in a few sub counties, after the community thought that the Yellow Fever vaccination is a trial medicine for COVID-19 prompting massive persuasion from the health workers.
 
Rasul Drajiga Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO) Yumbe district hails the local community for their support and generosity shown during the campaign.

"I want to thank everyone in the district for accepting and supporting the campaign, it was a golden opportunity for us as the district because elsewhere people pay for the vaccine which is very expensive" said Drajiga.

Agnes Chandia Baku, Assistant Commissioner Health says, the level of teamwork and readiness to work shown by the different stakeholders is very remarkable.

 She added that, in some vaccination points, the level of organisation and preventive measures lined by the health team was so amazing that the Covid-19 SOPs were followed.

 "I am very impressed by the readiness by the health team, I saw some of them pulling out their own cash to purchase water and other drinks and biscuits to help them achieve the targets which excellently happened", Chandia says.

Chandia therefore appeals to the district health department to maintain the same spirit of teamwork to fight the current deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

During the feedback meeting on Monday evening, Keriwa Sub County was awarded the best performance certificate, Yumbe Town council and Bidibidi Zone 5 completed the best three performing clusters.

Yume district is currently home to over 400,000 refugees mainly from South Sudan and this could have directly impacted on the good results registered by the district.

While launching the campaign in Moyo district recently, the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng mentioned that the Yellow fever outbreak in the West Nile region required the Ministry's quick response despite currently being engaged by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response.

Uganda is considered a high-risk country for Yellow fever by a comprehensive global strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics (EYE).