Health minister calls for sustained anti-polio effort

Minister of Health Jim [Katagugu] Muhwezi said on Friday welcomed the fact that Uganda had not had a single new case of polio since 1996, when the campaign against polio was started, and appealed to all parents to have their children vaccinated in this year’s National Immunisation Days (NIDs) to consolidate the gains made. Muhwezi said there would also be additional ‘mop-up’ vaccination operations in areas bordering Sudan, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), starting on Saturday, 11 August, the government-owned ‘New Vision’ newspaper reported. “The rationale for carrying out sub-National Immunisation Days is that both the DRC and southern Sudan are still isolating [cases of] wild polio virus,” it quoted Muhwezi as saying. “The other reason is that our borders are porous and, therefore, the importation of this wild polio virus is a real possibility,” he added. Muhwezi anticipated that Uganda - and the rest of Africa - would be declared polio-free by 2005. Brigadier Jim Muhwezi was a controversial choice among President Yoweri Museveni’s 64 ministerial and junior ministerial appointments in late July, having been censured by the last parliament - along with Minister of State for Investment Sam Kuteesa - for alleged abuse of office.