Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
KENYA-UGANDA: Polio prevention efforts stepped up
PADER-NAIROBI, 23 November 2010 (IRIN) - Polio prevention efforts have been increased in Uganda and neighbouring Kenyan districts after a case was confirmed in Bugiri District, in eastern Uganda.
PADER-NAIROBI, 23 November 2010 (IRIN) - Polio prevention efforts have been increased in Uganda and neighbouring Kenyan districts after a case was confirmed in Bugiri District, in eastern Uganda.
Uganda?s Ministry of Health and partners on 20 November launched a three-day, house-to-house polio immunization campaign in 48 districts targeting children younger than five.
In the northern Ugandan district of Pader, community immunization teams trekked to villages housing former internally displaced persons (IDPs).
"Mothers are happy, instead of moving to [the] immunization post, their children are being immunized right in [the] homes," said Pader district health officer, Janet Oola, adding that 43,071 children were being targeted.
Pader is vulnerable to polio because of its proximity to Southern Sudan, Oola said.
The polio case identified in Bugiri, about 40km from Kenya's Busia border town, in late October, was the first to be reported in Uganda since May 2009.
An analysis of the virus showed it to be genetically identical to the wild polio type from Southern Sudan, added Willis Akhwale, head of the Department of Disease Prevention and Control in Kenya's Ministry of Public Health.
Polio immunization coverage in 22 Kenyan districts bordering eastern Uganda was found to be low, prompting control efforts, which will continue until January, added Akhwale.
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