Kampala – The Minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has Thursday launched the Vaccine Last-Mile Delivery program that will see vaccines delivered to the lowest health facilities across the country.
This is in line with the government of Uganda’s commitment to increasing the availability of vaccines and improving cold chain capacity.
During the launch held at the Ministry of Health Headquarters in Kampala, Dr Aceng handed to National Medical Stores (NMS) six refrigerated land cruisers, motorcycles, and other cold chain equipment as part of a wider effort to support the national immunization services.
The Minister urged district leaders to ensure full optimization of the equipment with proper vaccine management practices.
“We have observed stagnation and coverage drops recently in the routine immunization coverages. With the current capacity of the program and in collaboration with district local government, we are determined to move past over 95% coverage for most of the 13 antigens under routine immunization,” said the Minister.
While NMS delivers essential medicines to the lowest health facilities, vaccines were being delivered to the district vaccine stores.
However, the new program mandates NMS to deliver vaccines to the last mile to improve vaccine coverage in the country.
“We have been involved in the last-mile delivery of other essential medicines since 2012 but the delivery of vaccines had to take a little longer because these are specialized cold chain products,” noted the NMS General Manager, Moses Kamabare.
