Kenya is scheduled to begin the process of administering polio vaccinations on 24 August, few weeks after polio cases were found in the northeastern part of the country.
The vaccination campaign is aimed at 7. 4 million young children (aged below five). It will focus on 10 counties that are at high risk, including Garissa county where the recent outbreak occurred.
Dr Patrick Amoth, Kenya’s health director-general, said in a meeting with the media that around 3% of children in Kenya have not received the polio vaccine.
In 2014, Kenya got rid of wild poliovirus, which is the main type of polio.
But in July, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Kenya is at a high risk of having vaccine-derived polio. This is a type of poliovirus that affects communities with low rates of vaccination.
WHO said that the risk of polio in Kenya is highest in the refugee camps. These camps are often very crowded and have bad sanitation. Many people there also suffer from malnutrition and move frequently to and from Somalia, where polio has been spreading recently because of the polio vaccine.
The national vaccination program aims to make vaccines easier to get and increase the number of people in Kenya getting vaccinated for polio.
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Kenya to start polio immunisation programme after receiving positive confirmation of cases
