Lamwo District health department is developing a response plan following the rising cases of measles in the district. By Monday, the district had registered 57 measles cases up from eight declared a week ago.
Michael Obote Odwar the Health Educator Lamwo district, says that the district is in the final stages of drafting a response plan, which will be shared by development partners.
Obote said they have also sent a request for more vaccines because they have only 1,400 doses for routine vaccination.
Measles vaccination is already ongoing in the hotspots of the Palabek Refugee settlement, where measles cases are being registered.
Walter Ocira, the National Expanded Program on Immunization-NEPI Focal Person for Lamwo district, said they are targeting 11,000 children in the settlement.
Eric Afema, the Health Manager, International Rescue Committee, IRC, which is one of the partners responding to the measles outbreak in Lamwo district, said they are vaccinating a targeted 3,193 children aged between 6 months to 14 years in Zone 8 of the settlement camp, the area within the settlement considered one of the measles hotspots.
However, information from the health department shows that by Monday, only 1,088 children of the targeted 3,193 children, accounting for 34.1 percent had been immunized.
Afema explained that they are being challenged by the frequent mobility of the refugees in and out of the settlement, and are always not around at the time of vaccination.
Lamwo district registered the first eight suspected measles cases between September 11-21st, which were all confirmed positive on September 27th, upon tests by the Uganda Virus Research Institute-UVRI.
Leaders have said all the cases seem to have been imported from South Sudan since all the cases are among refugees.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that is among the leading causes of death among children, worldwide.