Parliament Passes Public Health Bill

Legislators have reconsidered the Public Health (Amendment) Bill, 2021, as returned by President Yoweri Museveni and passed the six clauses as recommended.

This was during the plenary sitting chaired by Speaker Anita Among on Wednesday, 02 November 2022.

Presenting the report of the Committee of Health on reconsideration of the Bill, the chairperson, Dr Charles Ayume, said that they agreed with the President’s concern on the use of the word “vaccination” and not “immunisation”.

“Most times we use the word immunisation and vaccination interchangeably, the President preferred the use of vaccination as opposed to immunisation. Vaccination is the act of giving a vaccine while immunisation is a period of physiological events that take place for one to acquire immunity,” Ayume said.

The committee had passed a clause in which the destruction of infectious beddings, clothes and articles would be done upon authorisation by the Local Council, to which President Museveni objected.

Ayume said that the committee agreed with the President’s recommendation to give the Medical Officer the power to destroy infectious beddings, clothes and articles.

“In the interest of time when faced with an infectious disease like Ebola, there is no need to seek authorisation from the local council. Any delay in the destruction of such beddings can aggravate the spread of diseases,” said Ayume.

The committee also agreed with another recommendation to replace the word “Minister responsible for Agriculture” with “Minister responsible for animal and plant health” to cater for diseases originating from animals as well as plants.

“For clarity to specifically impose the duty of enacting the rules on the minister responsible for animal health since the rules envisaged are intended to prevent the spread from any animal or the carcass; or product from any animal to man; or from any plant, part of plant or product,” said Ayume.

President Museveni further recommended that the powers of the Director General of Health Services should be restricted to assigning a vaccinator and not appointing one as mentioned in the bill.

He argued that the Director General of Health Services has no powers to appoint staff under the law.

The object of the bill is to provide for the repeal of obsolete provisions, to revise the fines for offences committed under the Act, to provide for the repeal of the part on venereal diseases and to provide for the repeal of references to construction and public sewers, among others.