Big stride as 8.6mn children are vaccinated against polio

Cabinet Secretary Health James Macharia administers a polio vaccine at Ruiru Sub District Hospital during the launch for the second National Polio vaccination campaign on January 17, 2014. Statistics from the Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Response Unit (DSORU) at the Ministry of Health showed that most counties surpassed the targets. PHOTO | FILE   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Kakamega’s immunisation surpassed its target by over 6,000 children after 406,735 were immunised.
• Kisii produced the highest number of children for immunisation in Nyanza at 306,175 children.
• Lamu County had the lowest number of children in the country, with only 20,699 being vaccinated, out of the targeted 22,669 children.
• Isiolo, Taita Taveta and Samburu counties too recorded low turnouts of 33,285; 49,404 and 51,863 children respectively.

By STELLA CHERONO
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Nairobi, West Pokot and Kakamega counties lead in the number of children immunised against polio in the country.

 

The three counties surpassed the Ministry of Health’s target by over 30,000 in the campaign that ended in June.

More than two million children received the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) in the three counties.

Statistics from the Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Response Unit (DSORU) at the Ministry of Health showed that most counties surpassed the targets.

Head of DSORU Ian Njeru attributed the uptake of the vaccine to intense campaigns at the national and county levels.

“The country has not experienced any cases of polio in the last financial year ending in July,” Dr Njeru said.

During the year, the ministry and its partners managed to immunise over 8.6 million children in the 47 counties out of a targeted total of nine million.

“In West Pokot, the ministry had targeted 501,571 children and managed to administer the vaccine to a total of 541,968,” Dr Njeru said.

Other counties in Rift Valley which impressed the healthcare providers with the number of children turning up for the oral vaccine were Nakuru (390,721), Narok (251,390) and Trans Nzoia (236,895).

This gave a 99 per cent coverage of the targeted population.

HIGHEST NUMBERS

Kakamega’s immunisation surpassed its target by over 6,000 children after 406,735 were immunised.

Kisii produced the highest number of children for immunisation in Nyanza at 306,175 children.

Lamu County had the lowest number of children in the country, with only 20,699 being vaccinated, out of the targeted 22,669 children.

Isiolo, Taita Taveta and Samburu counties too recorded low turnouts of 33,285; 49,404 and 51,863 children respectively.

The ministry attributed the low turnout in these areas to poor infrastructure which made it difficult for mothers to reach the health centres.

It also compounded door-to-door immunisation. Other challenges were cultural and religious beliefs.

Despite the low turnout however, the three counties collectively surpassed the previous year’s immunisation reach by 16,000.

Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri said the fact that the country had not recorded any case of polio in the last financial year was a great gain in the fight against the disease.

“The ministry will intensify surveillance until the disease is eradicated in the country,” Dr Muraguri said.

Although the last case of indigenous polio was eradicated in 1984, population movement had exposed the country to minimal polio transmission incidents since, said Mr Wycliffe Matini, a communication officer at the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance and Outbreak Response..

“Poliomyelitis - the virus that causes the disease has several genotypes and every time a case of the disease is reported, medical experts have to get the samples into the laboratory and study it to determine its origin. The genotype classification is important for countering polio,” Mr Matini said.

THREE CATEGORIES

From 1984, no polio cases were reported until 2006 when two were detected in Garissa.

Two years later, 19 cases of the disease were reported in Turkana County among children of refugees who had fled South Sudan, before spreading to Kenyan children in Turkana. The genotype was traced to South Sudan.

The disease manifests itself in three categories: sub-clinical - where patients might never have symptoms and the central nervous system is not affected; the non-paralytic - which only produces mild symptoms without affecting the nervous system and finally, the paralytic which is the most serious form of polio and results in full or partial paralysis.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in every 200 polio infections results in permanent paralysis.

WHO’s recent statistics indicate that the whole world reported only 1,352 cases of polio in 2010.

Only 416 cases were reported globally in just eight countries in 2013, Kenya being one of them.

The World Health Assembly earmarked Polio for emergency eradication in 1988 and declared that every case of polio would be named an ‘Outbreak’ and must be accorded utmost urgency in treatment.

year, the government in its eighth Cabinet meeting declared polio in Kenya a public health emergency following its re-emergence.