Uganda initiated a large-scale vaccination campaign in April to combat yellow fever, a mosquito-borne disease.
Despite aiming to reach millions, vaccine hesitancy has resulted in hundreds of unused doses sitting in hospitals nationwide.
Yellow fever, a potentially fatal virus, lacks a specific treatment. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) advocates for vaccination, which provides lifelong protection against the disease.
In the outskirts of Kampala, students lined up to receive their vaccinations as part of the government’s mass vaccination initiative.
The campaign’s second phase, initially slated from April 2nd to 8th, was extended by a week due to low turnout.
In June 2023, the government launched a similar campaign with the aim of vaccinating 13 million individuals.
Combined with the 2024 efforts, these campaigns were expected to provide enough vaccinations to safeguard 27 million people.
To date, only 12 million people have received immunisation against yellow fever, with vaccine hesitancy posing a significant obstacle to the government’s goal of eradicating the mosquito-borne virus from Uganda.
Yellow fever is deemed a major threat to global health security, particularly in central Africa and South America.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 27 African countries, including Uganda, are classified as high-risk for yellow fever, with 90% of reported global cases occurring on the continent.
Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and bleeding from the nose and eyes. WHO estimates suggest there are between 84,000 to 170,000 severe cases of yellow fever in Africa each year, with up to half resulting in fatalities.
Dr. Michael Baganizi, the programme manager for the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunisation, notes that sporadic cases of the disease have occurred earlier this year. He emphasises that even a single case can pose a significant national health risk.
“Uganda, like you know, is one of the 27 countries that is regarded still as high-risk countries in the world so far meaning that it’s high risk or you could get yellow fever around in the country so when you travel in or travel out that’s why we are required to have proof of vaccination,” stated Baganizi.
He believes people’s reluctance to get vaccinated stems from the lesser-known nature of yellow fever compared to diseases like malaria.
James Odite, a registered nurse at a private hospital in Kampala designated as a government vaccination center, reports that the facility still has hundreds of unused doses of the yellow fever vaccine.
According to Odite, most of the initial vaccine recipients were individuals planning to travel to countries where the yellow fever vaccine is a legal entry requirement. “It was low in the first weeks because people were doubting about the vaccine,” Odite explains.
“They thought, why is the government introducing the campaign of yellow fever as they had queries like the government wants to give them expired vaccines.”
He notes that the yellow fever jab is mandatory for travellers entering and leaving Uganda, so those accepting the free vaccine offer tend to be travellers.
Although serving as a councillor involved in local law-making in Kampala, Mosh Ssendi vehemently opposes the vaccination program.
He argues that the effects of the disease are being exaggerated to coerce people into taking the vaccine.
While a safe yellow fever vaccine has been available since 1937, according to the US National Institutes of Health, Ssendi contends that people should have the option of developing immunity by surviving an infection.
“We should be focusing on building immunity rather than introducing chemicals into our bodies.
“That’s why I personally contacted my son’s school and instructed them not to involve him in any mass vaccination activities,” he asserts.
Baganizi acknowledges the challenge of convincing the public to prioritise yellow fever vaccination, given that many have never witnessed the disease firsthand.
“Yellow fever, although talked about, is not as familiar as malaria, which almost every household knows about. However, the threat posed by yellow fever can be significant,” he elaborates.
“Educating the public about yellow fever is particularly challenging because if individuals haven’t encountered the disease, seen a neighbour with it, or witnessed someone succumb to it, they may not perceive it as a threat,” he adds.
Despite the hurdles, Baganizi remains determined to persuade a skeptical public to embrace vaccination as a crucial defence against the deadly virus.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Kenyan scientists race to develop Antivenom as snakebite cases surge