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Source: http://zikkir.com/health/2840
Uganda on polio alert following outbreak in neighboring northwestern Kenya
Posted by Rita Isaac | 20 September 2009, 11:43 am
KAMPALA ? Uganda is set to carry out a second round of polio immunization exercise in the northeastern region after a recent outbreak of the Wild Polio Virus in neighboring Kenya, a senior health official said on Thursday.
Possy Mugyenyi, the program manager of the Uganda National Expanded Program for Immunization, told reporters here that the exercise scheduled for next month is aimed at preventing the crippling disease from crossing into Uganda.
He said children in other districts in northern Uganda, bordering southern Sudan where cases have been reported, will also be immunized.
The last mass polio immunization exercise in the country was launched in June after a series of others following the spread of the disease from southern Sudan to Uganda.
The outbreak was confirmed on Feb. 25 after a 16 month-old baby with weakness in the limbs tested positive for Wild Polio Virus type 1.
Mugyenyi said the country has intensified its polio campaign to ensure that the disease does not spread within the country and no other cases are imported.
?Since May we have not seen any new case of polio in Uganda. If we had not had serious activity, we would have had many cases,? he said, noting that there are currently eight cases.
Mugyenyi said the Horn of Africa countries at a recent meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi agreed on an action plan to fight the disease.
?We agreed that we should have regular cross border meetings. District administrators of Uganda, Sudan and Kenya should have regular meetings so that they continue analyzing the degree of the threat,? he said.
?We agreed to synchronize the immunization exercises to reduce the possibility of the virus harboring in any particular community,? he added.
Uganda had been certified by the World Health Organization polio-free in October 2006 after a 10-year zero-case record.
Polio, a globally diminishing disease, occurs mainly on the Indian subcontinent and parts of West and Central Africa. A child infected with the virus presents with acute fever followed by weakness in the limbs.
- Xinhua
Uganda on polio alert following outbreak in neighboring northwestern Kenya
Posted by Rita Isaac | 20 September 2009, 11:43 am
KAMPALA ? Uganda is set to carry out a second round of polio immunization exercise in the northeastern region after a recent outbreak of the Wild Polio Virus in neighboring Kenya, a senior health official said on Thursday.
Possy Mugyenyi, the program manager of the Uganda National Expanded Program for Immunization, told reporters here that the exercise scheduled for next month is aimed at preventing the crippling disease from crossing into Uganda.
He said children in other districts in northern Uganda, bordering southern Sudan where cases have been reported, will also be immunized.
The last mass polio immunization exercise in the country was launched in June after a series of others following the spread of the disease from southern Sudan to Uganda.
The outbreak was confirmed on Feb. 25 after a 16 month-old baby with weakness in the limbs tested positive for Wild Polio Virus type 1.
Mugyenyi said the country has intensified its polio campaign to ensure that the disease does not spread within the country and no other cases are imported.
?Since May we have not seen any new case of polio in Uganda. If we had not had serious activity, we would have had many cases,? he said, noting that there are currently eight cases.
Mugyenyi said the Horn of Africa countries at a recent meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi agreed on an action plan to fight the disease.
?We agreed that we should have regular cross border meetings. District administrators of Uganda, Sudan and Kenya should have regular meetings so that they continue analyzing the degree of the threat,? he said.
?We agreed to synchronize the immunization exercises to reduce the possibility of the virus harboring in any particular community,? he added.
Uganda had been certified by the World Health Organization polio-free in October 2006 after a 10-year zero-case record.
Polio, a globally diminishing disease, occurs mainly on the Indian subcontinent and parts of West and Central Africa. A child infected with the virus presents with acute fever followed by weakness in the limbs.
- Xinhua