Polio vaccination drive for children launched in Garissa

Garissa,

Thursday, August 24, 2023

KNA by Eric Kyalo

The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the World Health Organization has kicked off the first round of Polio vaccination campaigns, targeting 1.8 million children in Garissa, Nairobi, Kiambu and Kajiado counties.

The campaign aims to reach children below the age of 5 years and will see the medical teams crisscross the vast county to have the children vaccinated.

Garissa Governor Nathif Jama who was the chief guest during the launch of the campaign in Garissa urged parents to use the opportunity to avail their children for the vaccination noting that polio is a highly contagious viral disease, which affects mostly children.

“We all know that children below 5 years are the most at risk of this severe disease which can even result in death. I encourage all parents and guardians from across the county to have their children vaccinated because our county is among those at high risk,” Jama said.

He further reiterated that the vaccine was safe and called for a massive campaign to reassure parents of the vaccine’s safety.

“We have been re-assured that the polio vaccine and indeed other vaccines are safe and will protect the children from paralysis and death. So let us not worry about that,” he said.

The campaign is in response to an outbreak of polio detected among some children residing in the refugee camps in Dadaab late June this year.

It is a collaboration of the Government of Kenya at various levels as well as WHO, UNICEF and the Red Cross.

Dr Martins Livinus representing WHO said that the organization will continue putting the necessary resources in the county, especially in strengthening systems that will allow the county to respond to health emergencies like Cholera, Polio and other diseases.

He called for the focus to be on strengthening routine immunization services noting that it is key to ensuring population immunity and prevention of the polio virus and other vaccine preventable diseases.

This, he said, requires that all eligible children should routinely receive complete doses of childhood vaccines including Oral Polio Vaccine and Inactivated Polio Vaccine doses within the first and second year of life.

While commending the Ministry of Health for detecting the outbreak, he called for efforts to be made to vaccinate children in hard to reach and security compromised areas with the vaccines. 

“It is actually unfortunate that we are doing this campaign, because, as you may be aware, WHO had declared the African region as polio-free and received its polio free status in August of 2020. But at the same time, we were advised to be vigilant in order to detect importation of the polio virus from countries in other regions where polio virus is still in circulation,” Dr. Livinus said. 

“To our communities, I would like to assure you that the polio vaccine and indeed other vaccines are safe and will protect the children from paralysis and death. Please present your children below the age of 5 years by bringing them for vaccination,” he added.

Courtesy; KNA