More than 3.6 million children were reached and vaccinated during the recent polio vaccination campaign that took place from October 2 to 6, 2024.
Director General (DG) for Health, Dr Patrick Amoth, said the majority of the 3.6 million children who received the vaccine, are healthy except for a few post-vaccination events reports, a pointer that vaccines are generally safe.
Amoth said the Ministry of Health received 23 reports of post-vaccination events of concern to parents and caregivers of children following the polio vaccination.
The operation covered nine high-risk counties of Nairobi, Busia, Bungoma, Turkana, Trans Nzoia, West Pokot, Kiambu, Machakos, and Kajiado.
The DG said caregivers and parents reported these post vaccination concerns to various nearest health facilities and through, the mobile based reporting platform *271# ,which allows the public to report any concerns to the Mobile Pharmacovigilance Electronic Reporting System (mPvERS).
“The Ministry engaged the Kenya National Vaccines Safety Advisory Committee (KNVSAC), which met from October 23 -24, 2024, to review all the received reports and found that out of the 23 reported and investigated cases, 16 were non- serious, ranging from generalised itchy rash, fever, conjunctivitis, body rashes, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, amongst others,” Amoth said.
He said seven of the reported cases were serious, presenting with generalised red and sometimes itchy bumps in the skin and fever, weakness of the lower limbs, convulsions, diarrhoea and vomiting and herpes zoster.
Amoth said an analysis of the serious and non-serious events showed 16 of the reported cases had resolved, while five are in the process of resolving.
Two of the reported cases resulted in death.
“Further investigation of the reported and investigated cases showed 18 cases were classified as coincidental, often due to underlying or emerging health conditions unrelated to the vaccine,” Amoth said.
He said factors supporting this classification included, the timing of symptoms, pre-existing health issues, and environmental exposure to infections.
“The majority of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) cases, were classified as coincidental, indicating that most reactions were likely due to external or underlying factors rather than the vaccine itself,” Amoth said.
He said this finding highlights the importance of comprehensive causality assessments, to clearly distinguish coincidental events from true vaccine-related reactions, thereby, ensuring public confidence in the immunisation programme’s safety.
“As the country gears towards the second round of polio vaccination campaign planned for November 9-13 2024, the Ministry of Health would like to emphasise that Polio is a highly infectious and debilitating vaccine-preventable viral disease, with the potential to cause paralysis in a matter of hours among young children, who are not fully vaccinated and may even lead to death,” Amoth said.
He said while there is no cure for Polio, the disease can be prevented by receiving the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV), and several booster doses through immunisation campaigns.
Amoth said all Kenyan children under the age of five years, are expected to be up to date with childhood vaccines, where they receive Polio vaccine at birth, six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks, as per the routine immunisation schedule.
“The Ministry of Health and the global community, have a vision to eradicate Polio, and we can only do it through achieving high vaccination coverage, against this debilitating disease,” Amoth said.
“We continue to urge all parents and caregivers, to bring their children for routine immunisation as per the immunisation schedule and to avail their children during vaccination campaigns so we can eradicate this debilitating disease.”
“ We reiterate there is no harm in a child getting a repeat dose of the Polio vaccine during the national vaccination campaigns,” he said.
Amoth appealed to the public to cooperate with vaccination teams, report any adverse events to the nearest health facility, or by dialling *271#, 719 or calling 0729 471 414/0732 353 535
