Health ministry declares Polio outbreak a public health emergency

The Ministry of Health has declared Polio a public health emergency in Uganda, following confirmation of positive laboratory tests from samples in Kampala.

According to the Health ministry’s Director General Health Services Dr. Henry G. Mwebesa, the tested environmental samples were collected from the sewerage plants in Bugolobi and Lubigi.

Bugolobi anf Lubigi are both sentinel environmental surveillance sites in Kampala, according to Dr. Mwebesa.

“Results from the test carried out at Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) confirmed a circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2(cVDPV2). The virus detected has a linkage with a cVDP2 strain reported in Sudan,” Mwebesa said.

Dr. Mwebesa said that the Health Ministry is now heightening surveillance and intensifying the search of polio cases in all health facilities.

“The Ministry of Health has heightened surveillance of polio in the country by intensifying search of polio cases in health facilities by reporting and investigation of all children under fifteen yeara with sudden onset of paralysis or weakness in the arms or legs and expansion of environmental surveillance.”

According to Dr. Mwebesa, Uganda and the entire Africa were certified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as wild-polio virus free in August 2020, but a resurgence has been reported in a number of countries including Uganda’s neighbours like Kenya, South Sudan and DRC.

He said that the resurgence may have been due to reduced routine immunisation and polio immunisation rates in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Polio as a viral disease is transmitted from person to person, mainly through a faecal - oral route or less frequently, through contaminated water or food, and multiplies inside the intestines.