Polio vaccine: MoH targets children below 15 in refugee camps

The Ministry of Health has raised the age of children eligible for the coming Oral polio vaccination campaign in Garissa County to 15 years.

This is after the virus was confirmed in a seven-year-old child in the county, making polio a threat to all persons irrespective of age in areas where population immunity is compromised.

The Ministry on Thursday said the campaign in Fafi and Daadab Subcounties as well as all refugee camps in Garissa County will his time target all children under 15 years.

PS Public Health Mary Muthoni said an additional two polio cases have been recorded in the country since August, bringing the total number of cases reported in the country in the recent past to eight.

“The government shall continue to undertake polio surveillance among children under the age of 15 years while at the same time undertake environmental surveillance to detect suspected cases promptly,” Muthoni said.

“The recruitment and training of the 100,000 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) will greatly boost these efforts and ensure that vigilance is enhanced at the community level,” the PS added.

Previously, vaccination campaigns have been conducted among children below the age of five.

The ministry will be conducting another round of vaccination campaigns from Saturday, October 7 to Wednesday, October 11 2023.

This is the second of the three planned vaccination rounds following the polio outbreak confirmation in Garissa County in June this year.

The upcoming round will target 10 high-risk counties of Mandera, Wajir, Tana River, Lamu, Kitui, Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado, Nairobi and Garissa targeting 3,119,158 children under five years of age in all the targeted subcounties.

Round one of polio campaigns was conducted from August 24 to 28 2023 in four counties of Kiambu, Kajiado, Garissa and Nairobi where a total of 1,960,748 children under five years were vaccinated out of a target of 1,879,402 children.

This translates to 104.2 per cent coverage.

Despite the sustained effort, the ministry has raised concern that transmission of the virus is still active in Garissa County, especially within the refugee camps.

“For a long time, it has been assumed that polio largely affects children under 5 years of age,” Muthoni said.

“However, the confirmation of the virus in a 7-year-old child re-affirms that, polio is a threat to all persons irrespective of age in areas where population immunity is compromised,” she added.

The ministry has now called on the public to report suspected polio cases among children under 15 years who show signs of polio.

These include developing sudden onset of weakness (paralysis) of the hands or legs or both without a history of injury.

The suspected cases should be reported to the nearest health facility or chief including nyumba kumi or call our hotlines 719 or 0729471414 or 0732353535.

The ministry has further called on the public to ensure that their children are up to date on the recommended vaccination schedules.

The PS noted that the ongoing polio outbreaks is squarely attributed to missed vaccination opportunities among children.

“I therefore urge all parents to ensure that their children receive all the required doses of the vaccines to stop further polio outbreaks. This begins at birth with the birth dose followed by another dose at 6 weeks, 10 weeks and at 14 weeks.”

The World Health Organisation has previously warned that the risk of vaccine-derived polio in Kenya remains high.

“WHO assesses the overall risk at the national level to be high due to the overcrowded living conditions in the refugee camp, high rate of malnutrition, poor water and sanitation facilities, mass and frequent population movements with Somalia,” WHO said.

It also noted there was an influx of new arrivals to the refugee camp. Other factors were the late identification of the newly arrived children, the high prevalence of unvaccinated dose children among the new arrivals.