Good turnout reported for mass measles campaign

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday that Uganda was stepping up efforts to combat measles by carrying out a mass immunisation campaign for over one million children under five years, including those living in camps for displaced persons near the borders with Tanzania and Rwanda. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Ugandan mass immunisation campaign carried out on Sunday and Monday, 10 and 11 November, will prevent over 15,000 childhood deaths over the next three years. Measles is the most deadly of all vaccine-preventable diseases, accounting for an estimated 777,000 childhood deaths per year worldwide, with over half these deaths occurring in Africa, according to UNICEF. Children affected may also suffer from permanent disability, including brain damage, blindness and deafness. "We have the know-how to tackle the problem, but the challenge we face in getting every child vaccinated is lack of adequate funds and political leadership," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. The 10-11 Ugandan immunisation campaign was carried out jointly by the Ugandan Ministry of Health, the American Red Cross, UNICEF and the WHO. The Uganda Red Cross Society, through its network of over 1,300 volunteers, was involved in educating local communities on the need for vaccination and in mobilising parents to make their children available for immunisation. Alice Uwase, acting Secretary-General of the Uganda Red Cross told IRIN on Wednesday that the turn-out for the immunisation exercise had been "very good". Although it had been "essential" to vaccinate the most vulnerable under-five age group, there was now a need to broaden the age bracket for immunisation of children up to school-going age, she said. "Often you will find that, if an older child contracts measles at school, he will then pass it on to younger children in the family. It is also much easier to mobilise children in the older age because more of them go to school," she added. Special efforts had been made during education campaigns to overcome traditional opposition to immunisation in both rural and urban areas. In Mbarara District, southwestern Uganda, the Red Cross Society had been vital to countering rumours that the vaccine could cause illness, rather than prevent it, according to Uwase. The WHO Representative in Uganda, Dr Oladapo Walker, emphasised the safety of the measles vaccine. "Let me assure you that the vaccines currently used by the Ministry of Health have no severe side-effects," he said. "The government is committed to improving health, development and growth of all children through cost-effective programmes like immunisation," Ugandan Minster of Health Jim Muhwezi said at the launch of the campaign. Humanitarian sources told IRIN, however, that the Ugandan Ministry of Health had not been able to carry out large-scale routine immunisation in many areas due to lack of funds and poor administrative capacity, making success of the recent mass campaign all the more important. UNICEF and WHO are aiming to reduce the number of measles deaths worldwide by 2005 through improved routine immunisation and supplemental campaigns that give children a second opportunity to be immunised. Mass measles immunisation campaigns are due to be carried out in eight other African countries this year - Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Benin and Kenya - reaching some 36 million children and preventing an estimated 170,000 deaths. "It is unacceptable for children to die from measles when we have an effective, safe and inexpensive vaccine that can prevent children from the scourge of this disease," according to UNICEF.