By Innocent Atuganyira
MASINDI: Masindi district has achieved its target in the just concluded mass polio immunization exercise that has been carried out national wide.
This was revealed on Tuesday during the official release of polio results at the district health officer resource center in Masindi town.
According to the results, 72,932 children have been immunized which is above the targeted number of 71,806 thus equivalent to 101.52%
Speaking at the official release of the results, Ms Phiona Sanyu the Chief Administrative Officer {CAO} Masindi applauded the health team asserting that planning, coordination, openness and transparency have been the drive towards this great success. ‘’We didn’t have money for this exercise but I was overwhelmed by motivation,’’ Sanyu said.
She also implored others to work heartedly than putting money at fore front. Sanyu was also challenged asserting that when they have money there is always low effort injection towards work compared to when they don’t have.
Patrick Baguma the district health officer noted that though they had a challenge of observing the standard operating procedure when carrying out the door to door polio immunization, they have been able to hit their target. ‘’We were able to provide hand sanitizer and other protective gears and also maintained the social distance when carrying out the exercise,’’ he contended.
The health specialist also noted that they received enough polio vaccines thus hitting their targeted number of children below 5years.
Cosmas Byaruhanga the Masindi district chairperson also applauded the health team and noted that there is need for the chief administrative officer to communicate to the ministry of health and they update on the number of parishes in the district since they have out-dated number of parishes. ‘’We have 56 parishes in the district but ministry of health only 32 which is old figure,’’ he asserted.
The district chairperson also said it’s important for the ministry of health to capture the current number of parishes asserting that each health facility is supposed to have a health facility. ‘’According to the number of parishes recorded by ministry of health, they may assume Masindi has enough health facilities yet we don’t have,’’ he noted.
