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Uganda’s Ministry of Health Implements Comprehensive Vaccination and Emergency Medical Services Programs to Reduce Mortality and Improve Health Outcomes.

Uganda provides vaccines against childhood illnesses, prevention of cancers and diseases in adulthood, and vaccines in response to disease outbreaks guided by the vulnerability profiles of the priority groups. The goal of the vaccination program is to ensure every child and priority populations at risk of Vaccine Preventable Disease are fully vaccinated. To this end the Ministry strives to; Provide equitable access to and create demand for immunisation services; Ensure availability of effective vaccines and supplies, and appropriate storage; Monitor and evaluate program performance, occurrence of Vaccines Preventable diseases and Adverse Events Following Immunisation.

Prevention of childhood illnesses and mortality:

Children are vulnerable to severe diarrhoea, pneumonia, Diphtheria, Polio, Pertussis, Tetanus, Tuberculosis, Measles and Rubella which can be prevented through vaccination. New vaccines are being progressively added to the national immunization schedule and now vaccinate against 13 immunizable diseases. Vaccination against yellow fever and the second dose of Measles Rubella are now added to the national vaccination schedule, 2022. Three years since the mass Measles Rubella vaccination 2019, outbreaks of measles have been interrupted. Ministry of health has increased vaccination coverage for DPT3 to 92% in 2021 compared to immunization of 9% in 1981 and 14% in 1986. There is a corresponding reduction of childhood mortality to 42 per 1,000 lives in 2016 from 98 per 1,000 live births in 1988. Prevention of cancers and diseases in adulthood:

In line with the epidemiological transition of the national disease profile, Ministry of Health has introduced two vaccines against control of the leading cancers in Uganda; cancer of the liver caused by Hepatitis B Virus and cancer of the cervix caused by the Human Papilloma Virus in 2002 and 2015 respectively. The birth dose of Hepatitis B is going to be introduced to consolidate the current gains in hepatitis control.

Vaccination against Epidemics and pandemics:

Ministry of Health established the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response system in the last 20 years ago for monitoring diseases with epidemic potential and disease targeted for eradication or elimination. Upon confirming outbreaks of such diseases, Ministry of Health response institutes public health measures including vaccination of vulnerable persons for example against Yellow Fever, Cholera, Meningitis outbreaks and of recent Ebola and COVID-19.

Ministry of Health is informed by the epidemiology of the diseases to ensure the people at the highest risk of infection and adverse outcomes are prioritized for prevention of diseases with vaccines. That explains why children are mainly targeted based on the vulnerability they have.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health invested in cold chain capacities and procure and installed 2,431 solar powered vaccine fridges in lower-level health facilities to ensure adequate vaccines are stored close to the people to meet the needs of the target population. In the long term, MoH envisions a Uganda that is free of vaccine preventable diseases; and in the medium term the public health importance of the disease in terms of morbidity, mortality and disability is reduced to improve health and productivity.

Emergency Medical Services

The establishment of a functional National Ambulance Service is one of the top priorities of the MoH. It is embedded in the National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Policy and Strategy, National Development plan III and the NRM Manifesto 2021-2025. The National EMS system includes the following three levels of care: Response at the scene of emergency; transportation with care; and response at the health facility level and critical care. The approval of the EMS policy by the Cabinet and subsequent launch of EMS Policy and Strategic Plan has paved way for systematic development of EMS in the Country.

Marine boat ambulances

The Ministry of Health with support from GAVI procured twelve Boat ambulances. Ministry of Health has now completed the coverage of the 20% of the Uganda population that lives around water areas. The MOH approved the Standards and Norms of ambulances in 2021 which recommend Type B ambulance (Basic Life Support) for universal coverage and Type C ambulance (Advanced life support/Specialised ambulance) used for critically ill patients. Each constituency in Uganda (100,000 population) will be allocated one Type B ambulance and each health region (2,000,000 population) will be allocated one Type C ambulance.

In addition, the MOH has taken the response to the highway road traffic crashes as one of the key outputs of the Emergency care response team. Annually we lose over 3,500 people due to road traffic crashes. The MOH has partnered with Uganda Red cross Society (URCS) to establish a responsive EMS system along the highways and to date have placed twenty-one type B ambulances across the highways in Uganda.

The MOH will establish one National and 16 ambulance stations / Call and Disptach Centres in which ambulance vehicles are serviced and refilled with equipment and medicines/health supplies. Currently two regional centres have been set up at Naguru National Referral Hospital and Masaka Regional referral hospital