Africa-Press – Uganda. The Ministry of Health has revealed that it will hold accountable individuals who decampaigned the Covid-19 vaccines, which led to its low uptake.
This was in response to the Auditor General’s audit report which stated that Covid-19 vaccines worth Shs28 billion went to waste and would be destroyed.
Mr Daniel Kyabayinze, the director of Public Health, said some people made negative remarks about the mass Covid-19 vaccination programme, leading to its shunning.
“Remember we had people talking ill about our vaccination programmes. It is now time for us to come and bring them to account for the vaccines we failed to use because their messages impacted what uptake it is. So every single loss we are yet to incur is because of bad communication or unfounded communication,” he said at the sidelines of the 8th graduation ceremony of field epidemiologists from the Public Health Fellowship programme in Kampala last Friday.
Mr Kyabayinze said the exercise of disposing of the expired vaccines will cost the government a lot of money, adding that they will work with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to trace induviduals who talked ill of the government programme.
“You know we have a law on what kind of information you give. When you pass on false information, there are consequences.”
He also cited the Public Health Act which mandates the public to support the government’s immunisation programmes and stipulated consequences for anybody who obstructs such a process.
According to the Auditor General’s report, which was released last week, Uganda is set to destroy Covid-19 drugs worth Shs28b following a slump in demand for the jabs, with more stock due to expire by next year. The money used to import the drugs was a loan from the World Bank.
The Covid-19 pandemic reportedly claimed the lives of 3,632 Ugandans.
When the Covid-19 vaccination exercise kicked off, social media was awash with information that Covid-19 was a man-made disease and a Western tool to control the population in the global South.
Others claimed that those taking the jabs would have their lifespan shortened and many would turn infertile.
Mr Kyabayinze said he was happy that several people experienced in public health had graduated and would debunk negative information and provide solutions to the different challenges the country has.
He applauded the new field epidemiologists for the commendable work they did during the Sudan Ebola outbreak.
The US government through the US ambassador to Uganda, Mr William W Popp, committed to continue funding the fellowship.
Dr Alex Ario, the programme director of the Public Health Fellowship, however, tasked the government to fund the fellowship for sustainability.
The US Centre for Disease Control Uganda country director, Ms Amy Boore, highlighted the need to stretch the fellowship to other countries because disease knows no borders.
The Public Health Fellowship programme has since its birth in 2015 channelled out 93 epidemiologists.
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