Tana River County targets to vaccinate 85,020 children aged below five years against polio.
The vaccination campaign for the region was launched, at Bilbil village in Bura Constituency. The County has received 96,168 polio vaccines.
The County Head of Immunization Services, Billy Mkamba, informed that Polio spreads very fast and if one child has been diagnosed with the disease, they may transmit the disease to approximately 200 other infants.
Tana River is among the 13 high risk counties which were identified by the Ministry of Health after it undertook a risk assessment.
Mkamba added that there is usually an outbreak of Polio, if the number of children vaccinated at birth is low.
In a bid to reach the set target the County has devised a number of strategies, including door to door, use of the dispensaries as vaccination centers and a team who will cover ‘hard to reach’ areas in a bid to administer the vaccines.
The Head of Immunization added that all health personnel who will take part in the polio vaccination exercise were trained and deployed to their work areas.
“A child will be marked in the index finger, indicating he has been vaccinated, the mark will stay for six days. Houses whose children will be given the vaccine will also be marked,’’ said Mkamba
Meanwhile, soon after the official launch of the campaign, the County Administration managed to facilitate the vaccination of more than 122 children in Bilbil.
By Sadik Hassan
