Uganda: Immunize Against Polio or Face the Law

Ugandan authorities are considering using the law to enforce parental action on immunisation of children as part of efforts to curb the spread of the polio virus. According to a health ministry spokesman, parents can be charged under the Public Health Act, the Penal Code Act, and the Children’s Statute because refusing to immunise a baby infringes on his/her right to health and at the same time exposes other children to infections.

In the past three months, Uganda has battled a wild polio virus that allegedly entered the country from neighbouring Southern Sudan. Some blame porous borders that allow free movement between Uganda and its neighbours as the trigger for the new outbreak, recorded only three years after the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the country polio-free in October 2006. So far (June 2009), according to the health ministry, 10 children have been crippled in the northern region of the country. These include 7 in Amuru District, one each in Pader and Moyo, and another in Bundibugyo, western Uganda. The health ministry has announced a nationwide drive focusing on 6.2 million children and integrating vaccination against measles, which has also shown signs of spreading in the country. The immunisation drive is first focusing on children in 29 districts considered to be at high risk of contracting wild polio virus immediately after it was identified in Amuru.

As stated here, some parents believe that vaccines are dangerous, despite assurances to the contrary from the health ministry and the WHO. Similar beliefs affected polio immunisation efforts in Nigeria, where some parents claimed the vaccinations were part of a plot to kill or sterilise their children. Uganda last conducted an immunisation campaign for measles in 2003, following a deadly outbreak. At least 13 million were immunised, leading to a reduction in the measles mortality rate of 91 percent, according to the health ministry.