More than 500,000 newborns countrywide were not vaccinated against polio and measles following the prolonged nurses’ strike, the Kenya Red Cross has said.
The strike lasted five months.
Red Cross secretary general Abbas Gullet said the consequences of missing on these two vaccines will be seen in the next one to two years if the matter is not addressed immediately.
He spoke yesterday in Mombasa during a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the five-year ( 2012-2017 ) Global Fund HIV grant for Coast counties.
The Red Cross, in partnership with Unicef,
approached the Ministry of Health and volunteered to hire 330 nurses on a two-month contract to help vaccinate children in the 11 worst-affected counties.
The programme, in its third week, is called the ‘Catch-up Campaign’.
The drive focuses on Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana, Marsabit, Moyale, Mandera, Garissa, Tana River and Samburu counties.
situation usually dire
“Under normal circumstances, the health sector in these areas is in dire need. The recent nurses’ strike made things worse,” Gullet said.
He said the Red Cross has intervened in many emergencies, adding Kenya’s public health sector is facing serious challenges.
Many counties have reported incidents of cholera this year.
Major counties including Mombasa and Nairobi are still grappling with the outbreak.
The Red Cross has established three cholera treatment areas in the last four months.
They are at Mama Lucy Kibaki and Mbagathi hospitals as well as in an open area in the Mukuru slum.
Baringo has also been affected by a malaria outbreak.
services halted
The nurses’ strike brought services in county hospitals to a halt.
It was called off after an agreement between the nurses’ union and the Council of Governors.
The nurses wanted risk allowances of Sh15,400 per month, extraneous allowances of Sh5,000 per month and uniform allowance to be increased to Sh50,000 per year from the current Sh10,000.