Feature: Uganda launches nationwide immunization to battle its top killer disease

Measles is one of Uganda's top killer diseases that has left parents in the east African country crying.

Linda Kemigabo, a mother of three children is one such parents who have faced the brunt of the deadly disease in her community in the western Ugandan district of Kyegegwa.

"It was very terrible last time to see how one of my friend lost a child because of failure to immunize against measles. The child developed complications and died," Kemigabo said as she queued to have her two children immunized.

She braced the hot sunshine vowing that she would never give measles a chance to snatch her children.

Over the past weekend Uganda launched a nationwide measles immunization exercise targeting at least seven million children.

Health workers traversed villages moving door to door combing up to ensure that no children is left unimmunized.

Health centers also filled up in an exercise government says is one of the efforts aimed at eliminating the disease by 2020.

"When I had about the immunization campaign against measles, I had to ensure my children get immunized," Kemigabo said shortly after her children had been immunized.

Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the symptoms of measles appear about seven to 14 days after a person is infected. The measles typically begins with high fever, cough, runny nose and red watery eyes.

In Uganda, measles is one of the 11 killer diseases among children. The others include polio, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio and tuberculosis.

Andrew Bakainaga, WHO country advisor told Xinhua that measles immunization is one of the strategies that the government and partners developed in the elimination of measles deaths.

"If the children are left out, you will build a poll of unimmunized children who will be at high risk," he said.

Sarah Opendi, Uganda's state minister for primary health who launched the three day immunization exercise on Oct. 3 said this is the fourth measles follow up campaign which aims at reducing measles morbidity and mortality by 95 percent.

To ensure that no child is left behind, the ministry of health said it will continue to carry out routine immunization exercises.

Taking advantage of the measles immunization exercise, the government also carried out supplementary Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) vaccination of at least 2.3 million children between 0-59 months in the 23 high risk districts.

Uganda was certified polio free in October 2006 by WHO after ten years of not reporting any indigenous polio cases. Uganda however remains at high risk of importing the polio virus from the neighboring countries due to the porous nature of the country's borders, which enables free movement of people amongst countries.

Uganda experienced outbreaks of the polio virus in February 2009 and October 2010 imported from South Sudan and Kenya respectively. In 2013 and early 2014, polio cases were detected and reported in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Endit