MoH announces polio vaccination campaign in Kenya to avert the disease expansion

KENYA – With six cases confirmed, Kenya’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced an emergency polio vaccination campaign in 10 counties with the highest risk.

The 10 counties include Nairobi, Kiambu, Kajiado, Garissa, Kitui, Machakos, Tana River, Lamu, Wajir, and Mandera.

The three-round vaccination campaign seeks to reach 7.4 million children under five years and will be launched at Ruiru Level 4 Hospital in Kiambu.

The first round of the campaign is scheduled to start August 28 with an initial focus on Kiambu, Nairobi, Kajiado, and Garissa and will target to vaccinate approximately 1.8 million children in the four counties.

This is after six poliovirus cases were detected among children in the Hagadera Refugee Camp in Garissa.

The six cases were picked through routine surveillance activities where healthcare workers identified the cases by analyzing stool samples taken from the affected children and subsequently sent to Kenya Medical Research Institutes and subsequently the samples tested positive for the presence of poliovirus.

The campaign was announced during a media and stakeholder breakfast meeting in Nairobi, public health and professional standards Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni, said that the cases were detected by healthcare workers through surveillance activities.

She added that further examinations of the collected samples conducted in Atlanta, USA, confirmed the virus’s similarity to the strain responsible for an outbreak in a neighboring country.

PS Muthoni said that immunization stands as the most potent path to eliminate polio, it is safe and will be disseminated free of charge through door-to-door campaigns, health centers, schools, mosques, and churches.

“Parents, and caregivers must avail this opportunity for the sake of their children’s future and save them from disability,” PS Muthoni emphasized. 

Kenya’s health partners chime in 

The emergency vaccination campaign is supported by the United Nations Children’s Educations Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

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 in a statement in July 2023. 

It also noted there was an influx of new arrivals to the refugee camp as well as late identification of the newly arrived children and the high prevalence of unvaccinated dose children among the new arrivals.

Dr Iheoma Onuekwusi, World Health Organization (WHO), lead communicable and non-communicable diseases said that in August 2020, WHO announced that all 47 countries in its Africa region had been certified wild poliovirus-free.

Dr Onuekwusi however added that countries including Kenya advised post-certification to keep their eyes open on imported viruses and also ensure that population immunity of children was maintained through regular routine vaccination with Oral poliovirus vaccines (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to prevent paralysis and deaths from polio.

She also called for a robust cross boarder collaboration with neighboring Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania urging them to address gaps in surveillance and routine immunization activities.

While Dr. Yaron Wolman, Chief of Health at UNICEF Kenya said that inadequate coverage of routine vaccinations in Kenya is causing a huge challenge to polio elimination goals.

He said that even though we have imported cases, inadequate routine vaccination coverage is causing a huge challenge.

“The polio vaccine is free, safe, and accessible. Our dedication to supporting the Kenyan government in the procurement of vaccines remains unwavering, parents and caregivers have the obligation of protecting their children through immunization,” emphasized Dr. Wolman.

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