1st Round Polio vaccination campaign starts, targets 1.8m children

The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the World Health Organization has kicked off 1st Round of Polio vaccination campaign.

The campaign targets 1.8 million children in the four counties that include Garissa, Nairobi, Kiambu and Kajiado.

The campaign that targets children below the age of 5 years will see the teams crisscross the vast county to have the children vaccinated.

Garissa governor Nathif Jama who was the chief guest urged parents to use the opportunity to avail their children of the vaccination noting that measles is a highly contagious viral disease, that affects mostly children.

“We all know that children below 5 years are the most at risk of severe disease or even death. And therefore I want to encourage all parents and guardians from across the county to have their children vaccinated because our county is among those at high risk,” he said.

He further reiterated that the vaccine was safe calling for a massive campaign to reassure parents of the safety of the vaccine.

“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 in children in the refugee camps in Dadaab in late June of 2023.

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

Dr Martins Livinus, WHO Kenya Emergencies Preparedness Response lead 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.