Evelyn Lirri
6 October 2008
Kampala — Ugandan districts bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan have been put on high alert after health officials warned of a possible outbreak of Wild Polio Virus.
"The Ministry of Health wishes to inform the district health officers, district leaders and the general public that the country is under threat of importing the Wild Polio Virus (WPV) from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," the Director General of Health Services, Dr Sam Zaramba, said in a statement on Friday.
About 20 districts, mostly along Uganda's border with DR Congo have been put on alert, according to Dr Zaramba. They include Kabarole, Kisoro Kasese, Kanungu, Rukungiri, Bundibugyo, Bushenyi, Mbarara, Hoima, Buliisa in western Uganda and Nebbi, Arua, Koboko, Yumbe, Moyo, Gulu, Pader, Kitgum and Kotido in northern Uganda.
The districts have been alerted to strengthen surveillance, reporting and immunisation in order to avert the possible spill over of the epidemic into Uganda.
According to Dr Zaramba, on September 13, the Ministry of Health was informed by the World Health Organisation of a confirmed case of wild polio virus in Miti-Murhesa District, South Kivu Province, in the DRC and on September 23, of another confirmed case in Juba town, South Sudan.
"The locations of these two cases are close to the Uganda border and have direct links to Uganda therefore posing a threat of importation of the virus. The porous border between DRC and Uganda and the free movement of people for trade and cultural reasons between Uganda and Juba, makes the possibility of importation even more likely than ever," Dr Zaramba said.
Wild polio is a viral disease contracted orally, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person.
When the virus invades nerve cells of the brain or spinal cord, it results in paralysis of muscles that control swallowing/breathing, and renders a victim's limbs, legs and the body trunk flaccid. The Ministry of Health has called for accelerated routine immunisation and screening-especially of children countrywide.
Dr Zaramba said this will help close the immunity gap caused by a high number of unimmunised children over the past few months. "All children under five years should be screened and those found to have missed any of the doses should be given the missed dose," Dr Zaramba said. "Districts should utilise the Child Days in the month of October to ensure that all children under five with no evidence of vaccination are given the polio vaccine."
District leaders have also been urged to establish vaccination posts at cross border points where all children below five years crossing the border will be given oral polio vaccine.
Uganda has recently been hit by a string of epidemics including Hepatitis E in northern Uganda, Ebola, meningitis, cholera, bubonic plague in West Nile and yellow fever. A rare strain of cholera ravaged the eastern districts of Pallisa, Tororo, Butaleja, Mbale and Manafwa in June, killing 28 people out of 350 who were infected.
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