Catholic Church asks to test polio vaccine before campaign begins

The Catholic Church and the government are yet again involved in a row over a planned anti-polio vaccine campaign scheduled to begin this Saturday.

Catholic Church Cardinal John Njue and chairman of the Catholic Health Commission, Rt. Rev. Paul Kariuki, have asked that the Ministry of Health and the Church should carry out a joint test of the vaccine before the exercise kicks off.

The catholic clerics said that they do not trust the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) who are funding the campaign.

Last year, the Catholic Church opposed the tetanus vaccination campaign by the government claiming that the vaccine had been laced with a birth control hormone.

The Catholic Commission argued that the government did not sufficiently prepare stakeholders for the tetanus vaccinations.

It said that the public had not been told of the rationale and background for the tetanus campaign. It also questioned why the campaign was targeting only women of 14 to 49 years.

The commission said that Catholic Church’s health institutions wanted to participate in ensuring that the vaccines to be administered were free of the hormone.