The Ministry of Health is set to carry out house-to-house polio vaccination for children aged 5 years and below across 49 districts bordering Mbale City due to an outbreak of polio.

According to the ministry, the immunization campaign aims to stop the spread of polio in districts surrounding Mbale City, the hot spot of polio.

“To respond to this outbreak, the ministry has planned to conduct two rounds of a house-to-house immunization campaign targeting children aged 5 years and below,” the ministry stated.

The first phase is scheduled to take place from Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th of October 2024 in 49 districts located in the Busoga, Bugisu, Bukedi, Teso, Sebei, and Karamoja regions.

The Ministry urged parents and guardians to ensure that all children aged 5 years and below are immunized against polio. However, the ministry stated that this polio immunization campaign does not replace routine immunization.

The ministry conducted a house-to-house polio immunization campaign from January 20-30, 2023, targeting children below 5 years with oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) in five districts that were affected by the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.

According to the World Health Organization, polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly affects children under five years of age. The virus is transmitted by the fecal-oral route and by aerosol droplets.