I am delighted to officiate at the launching of the Rota Virus diarrhea immunization. I thank all the development partners and International Organizations like; UNICEF, World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance etc and many others for the support they have been rendering in the improvement of the health sector.
Preventive healthcare is the best, effective and cheapest means of delivering health services to our people. It is pleasing to note that the spread of the Rota virus is highly preventable since the ways in which it is spread are known and can be avoided through maintaining good hygiene and proper sanitation. The Rota virus diarrhea immunization is just an additional way to ensure that our children are free from infection. It is, therefore, a welcome vaccine to our health system.
An unhealthy labour force cannot support effective national production. The government will continue with programmes aimed at improving the health of our people.
Since the turn of the century, several positive changes have occurred in the world of human development. People are living longer, bringing the global average life expectancy to 71 years for women and 67 years for men. For the first time in documented history, the number of children under five years old dying every year has fallen below 10 million.
Uganda has one of the highest growth rates in the world. Its contributions to the Post 2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are a sign of its increasingly effective efforts to influence global debate.
The government of Uganda continues to be committed to achieving the sustainable development goals, most of which line up with the National Vision 2040 (“A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country) – the national vision statement of the country.
One of the major handicaps to Africa’s social and economic transformation is associated with the inadequacy of its human capital. There is, therefore, an urgent need for concerted and strategic investment in the continent’s human resource to turn it into the much needed human capital to drive the planned growth and transformation. The human resource must be healthy, educated and properly skilled. An educated, skilled and healthy workforce is important for the socio-economic development of a country.
We are working on education and health for all and this means we need schools and health centers. The massive free education program for Primary and Secondary Schools, the expanding of tertiary and University education, massive immunization programmes have produced more educated and healthier generations; the literacy rate is now 75%. The struggle now is to skill these educated people and create jobs for them.
It has been brought to my attention that a number of children start immunization but do not complete the immunization schedule and, therefore, do not get the full benefits of immunization. This is unacceptable. A number of districts do not prioritize nor do they take up these programs as their own decentralized services.
I now have the pleasure to launch the Rota Virus diarrhea immunization in Uganda.
