By Gad Masereka
Mukono: As health workers in Uganda continue with immunization countrywide, four pupils at Nsonga Church of Uganda Primary School in Nsonga Village, Nakisunga Sub-County in Mukono district, were on Thursday rushed to to Nkokonjeru hospital after a classroom wall collapsed on them as they waited to be immunized.
The injured pupils include; Nusra Nandase, Barack Waliggo, Harriet Nambasse and Alvin Namwedwa, who were hit by bricks and debris when the classroom wall collapsed due to a heavy storm.
The deputy head teacher Deborah Namutebi , said that “The building which is part of the primary seven block, has been incomplete for over 30 years which made it weak hence, collapsing.”
She added that “The wall has been a threat to the lives of the pupils until it fell, leaving four of our pupils injured.”
Namutebi noted that this issue has been discussed for several years but unfortunately it had never been sorted until the wall collapsed.
The ongoing immunization which began on October 15, 2019 is aimed at immunizing more than 18 million children against measles and rubella, which amount to 43% of the country’s population. Among them, 8.2 million children younger than 9 months, or 20.5% of the population, will also receive the oral polio vaccine.
The five-day mass immunization campaign, funded by the Government of Uganda; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; the United Nations Children’s Fund; and the World Health Organization (WHO); intends to tackle these three public health challenges.
The campaign, to be conducted in schools for the first three days and in communities for the last two days, targets all children younger than 15 years, whether previously immunized or not, in order to interrupt the circulation of these diseases. The campaign will be a launchpad to introduce the measles-rubella vaccine into the country’s routine immunization schedule.
