Polio vaccination campaign ends

The first phase of the polio vaccination exercise ended on Wednesday following the vaccination campaign that stated on Saturday.

The Polio vaccination exercise, which focused on 32 high-risk counties, received mixed reactions with the Catholic Church warning that the vaccine may not be safe.

The exercise targeted 6 million children aged below five years but it is not yet clear whether the target was achieved.

Public Health officers administering polio faced a stiff opposition after residents in Migori County refused to have their children vaccinated.

This come even after the Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri assured Kenyans that the vaccines used during polio vaccination campaigns are safe and have been tested by the Poisons and Pharmacy board and prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Last week, the Catholic Church and the government were yet again involved in a row over a planned anti-polio vaccine campaign.

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

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

Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony and area Women Representative Hellen Chepkwony asked religious and other leaders to consider the future health of children before politicising the polio vaccination campaign among ordinary Kenyans.

The last indigenous polio virus case in the country was reported and confirmed in 1984.

However, the country has experienced four outbreaks in the last nine years.

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.