by Africa-Press-Reporter
The Uganda opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) wants government of Uganda to explain to the public if it ascertained that Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, following reports that other countries in Europe have suspended its use.
FDC party president Patric Oboi Amuriat says that Ugandans must be assured, given the fact that such concerns are emerging across the world.
“European countries have suspended the use of this vaccine on account of its side effects on their population. low platelet counts that affect clotting bloods, has been identified as one of the side effects. Pal memory embolism has been identified as another side effect and so our clarion call to the Museveni administration for them to re-examine the side effects of this vaccine given the way citizens of other countries are responding to it,” said Amuriat.
Amuriat also said that no wonder during president Museveni’s speech to the nation on Sunday, Museveni admitted that he has not yet taken the vaccine.
“Why doesn’t he take the vaccine like other world leaders have done,” Amuriat added.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health received the first batch of 864,000 AstraZeneca doses from India on 5 March 2021 and the vaccination started last week on 10 March.
Speaking to African Press, the Minister of Health Dr Aceng revealed that Uganda targets to vaccinate 49.6 percent of the population, which is about 21,936,011, in a phased manner .
Why Uganda opted for AstraZeneca vaccine.
The government insisted on procuring the AstraZeneca vaccine despite reports which showed that the vaccine has low levels of efficacy against some new strains of Covid-19.
But the Minister for Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng explained that they decided to go for AstraZeneca, because the vaccine’s technology has been tested for over a century, and that vaccine fridge in Uganda’s health facilities meet the storage temperature requirement of 2 to 8 degrees.
“What is important is to ensure we reduce transmission by following Standard Operating Procedures,” said Aceng.
FDC’S concern about AstraZeneca.
Last week countries including France, Denmark, Ireland and Thailand were the first to temporarily suspend their use of AstraZeneca vaccine and later on Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, and Congo followed suit, after reports that some people developed blood clots.
But the head of World Health Organization Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus released a statement saying that the available data do not suggest that the vaccine caused blood coagulation, and that people should continue using AstraZeneca use in some European countries.
“It is important to note that the European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee has said that there is no indication of a link between the vaccine and blood clot and that the vaccine can continue to be used while its investigation is ongoing,” said Dr Adhanom.
