The Ministry of Health has confirmed that the recently concluded Measles- Rubella vaccination campaign may have minor side effects and not everybody gets them.
Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng revealed this on Friday at Uganda Media Centre while declaring the results of the vaccination campaign where she said that such effects are not as dangerous as most people have been saying on social media.
Aceng’s statements came in the time when many people have been expressing worries saying that ever since their children got immunized , they have been experiencing some side effects.
“From the laboratory-based surveillance, we know that about 45 per cent of the suspected measles cases are non-specific skin conditions. Like any pharmaceutical products, MR vaccines have some side effects. However, they do not affect everybody and often are minor and temporary,” she said.
She added that such common minor side effects include; soreness, redness, or rash at the injection site, fever or swelling of the glands in the cheeks or neck. However, she confirmed that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risk of non-vaccination, especially at the population level.
The immunization campaign ran from 16 to 22 October, 2019.
According to Aceng, the results from the campaign showed that a total of 19,476,110 children were vaccinated against Measles-Rubella out of the 18,100,000 targeted representing 108 per cent. 7,955,597 children were also vaccinated against Polio out of the 8,200,000 targeted representing 97 per cent.
“This was the first and largest vaccination campaign in the history of this country; reason being that 3 vaccines were being delivered at the same time and the widest age range. The targets were 18.1 million children for vaccination against Measles-Rubella (9 months to 15 years of age) and 8.2 million children (0-5 years of age) for Polio vaccination,” said Aceng.
She added that as a result of this mass immunization campaign, most of the isolation wards have since returned to their Measles free status. 71 per cent reduction has been observed in the number of clinically suspected cases basing on weekly surveillance reports.
In the week of 4th to 10th November, only 212 suspected Measles and Rubella cases were reported following the vaccination campaign compared to 733 during the week of 1st to 7th April 2019 before the campaign was launched.
“From the laboratory-based surveillance, we know that about 45 per cent of the suspected measles cases are non-specific skin conditions. Like any pharmaceutical products, MR vaccines have some side effects. However, they do not affect everybody and often are minor and temporary,” she said.
The Ministry of Health implemented the vaccination campaign in response to Measles and Rubella outbreaks in which; 300,000 suspected measles cases were reported, 46,000 patients were admitted with symptoms of Measles-rubella disease, and 586 related deaths were recorded in the three years’ period of the outbreak.
Over the last three years, at least 120 districts annually reported suspected cases through the weekly surveillance system. Ninety-six per cent 96 per cent of the reported cases were between the ages 1-15 years; hence informing our target population for the vaccination exercise.
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