Mbarara stuck with over 600 doses of Covid-19 vaccines
MBARARA – Mbarara district health officials are stuck with a total of 620 doses of Covid-19 vaccines after some residents stopped going to the health centres to receive their jabs.
This was disclosed during a media café facilitated by The Health Journalists Network in Uganda [HENJU], in partnership with the Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention [AVAC], a non-organisation working to improve the healthcare system in western Uganda.
Among the Covid-19 vaccines received and administered in Mbarara district include; Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer.
According to Dr. Denis Nelson Wandera, out of 46 million people in Uganda, 21.9mln Ugandans have received Covid-19 jabs, representing about 49.6 percent while in Mbarara district, 99,701 are fully vaccinated while 29,408 are partially vaccinated.
At Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital alone,14,337 got full doses of vaccines administered while 10,424 were partially vaccinated.
Fredrick Kamugisha, the district health educator, said Mbarara received the last batch of Pfizer on April 5, 2023, that is expiring on May 9, 2023.
“We received 696 doses of Pfizer that are nearly expiring and for Jonson we have been having it in all the health facilities,” he said.
Kamugisha said people gained irrelevance from the vaccine because of low risks and Covid19 was no longer a threat like it was before.
“Out of 46 percent of the people that received vaccines in Uganda, 33 percent…were fully immunised and that means 67 percent did not complete the immunisation schedule. I attribute this to acceptance and risk perception because during Covid-19, the acceptance and risk perception had reached almost 98 percent. By the end of the second round of vaccination for Covid19, the risk perception had gone down to 46.7 percent, vaccine acceptance at 53.6 percent,” Kamugisha said
“Except for taking vaccines for either travel or important functions where vaccination is a must, many people question the relevance of taking Covid-19 jabs after the disease infections went down, and because of that, the vaccines are stuck in the store,” he added.
He said that people believed in AstraZeneca compared to other vaccines, thus resulting in the expiry of Pfizer in most of the hospitals.
“I remember there was a vaccine that was brought to Mbarara hospital that was meant for children but the turn-up was quite disappointing and we ended up losing many doses of that particular vaccine. We should all advocate for the vaccination campaign and sensitise the masses so that people are able to go for vaccination against Covid-19,” Kamugisha noted.
https://thecooperator.news/covid-19-effects-hit-kitgum-cooperatives-hard/
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