Gov’t secures 30,000 doses of Oral Cholera Vaccine for Nyakabande Transit Camp.

By Alex Gahima

A total of 30,000 Oral Cholera vaccines have this week, been delivered to Kisoro district in the wake of a looming outbreak of cholera at the Nyakabande Transit camp which currently has a population of 17,600 Congolese.

Kisoro Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Hajji Shafiq Sekandi says hygiene and sanitation at the transit camp is very worrying.

Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies, often causing severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Sekandi says, Nyakabande transit camp which is only one square mile, is already over populated by asylum seekers who are fleeing political instability in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 940 Congolese were relocated from Nyakabande Transit camp to Nakivale Settlement Camp in Isingiro district on 21^st of April, 2022.

According to Sekandi, efforts to construct more shelters and latrines at transit camp by key implementing partners like Uganda Red Cross, Medical Teams International (MTI) and UNHCR is now proving negligible because of the huge population.

“The toilet facilities are simply not enough and now that the rainy season has begun, we have risks we are facing. We are concerned that an outbreak of Cholera is very likely”, Sekandi explained.

He noted that Government, through the Ministry of Health has decided to send cholera vaccines for the Congolese at the transit camp as well as host communities including Nyakabande, Bunagana, Nyarubuye, Mupaka and Muramba.

Sekandi called upon host communities to embrace the vaccination campaign because an increase of open defecation cases has been registered.

“Congolese visiting hotels and bars in communities especially in Nyakabande are defecating in bushes because they do not have access to latrines. The number of people in need of latrines are more than the existing latrines”, Sekandi stressed.

Back in 2019, there were three cholera outbreaks in Kyaka II, Nakivale refugee settlements and the Nyakabande Reception Centre.

Assistant District Health Officer in charge of immunization Annet Dusabe says the campaign is will take three days targeting people, one year and above.

According to Dusabe, each person will get one dose of the vaccine that will be delivered orally.

She called on the targeted communities to embrace the vaccination campaign.