Residents of Busia, especially mothers, have been urged to adhere to the national immunisation schedule in order to ensure good health among children.
Speaking to KNA after hosting a post-implementation evaluation meeting with stakeholders for the recently concluded polio vaccination exercise at a hotel in Busia on Tuesday, Busia County Coordinator for Immunisation Juliet Kilima noted that a section of the residents does not take their children for immunisation services.
“Our immunization landscape shows that our county is at 50 percent, meaning that there are 20 percent of our children who have not been immunised,” she said, adding that the trend is very dangerous for the county’s population.
Kilima urged parents and guardians to take their children to be examined to establish whether they have received all the required immunisation services.
“Currently we have 117 health facilities that offer immunisation services distributed across the County,” she said, adding that caregivers are also taught how to prevent some diseases.
She stated that the mass polio campaign managed to reach 93 percent of children below 10 years despite some challenges of hesitance from a section of the local community.
“This hesitation was caused by misinformation from social media that were misleading,” she said, advising residents to know that all vaccines issued by the government are safe.
The immunisation coordinator explained that the mass polio vaccination was a reaction to four cases of polio that were reported within the country.
“Our County of Busia was among the high risk areas because those with the reported cases passed through our border point,” she explained.
Kilima further urged the local residents to come out in large numbers and bring their children for vaccination adding that the mass vaccination revealed that the number of children who received the required immunization doses were very few.
“This means that we are predisposing our population to preventable diseases which are very dangerous because the remaining population becomes susceptible to other diseases”.
Busia County Commissioner Mwachaunga Chaunga thanked the health workers for the exemplary service they were carrying out in the County.
Chaunga advised the health leadership to involve other stakeholders including religious leaders for better results.
He further called for increased sensitisation and community engagement adding that there is a lot of misinformation from social media that jeopardizes the uptake of vaccines.
“It is our responsibility as medics, religious leaders and government officials to communicate the correct information,” he said.
The administrator at the same time advised the health leadership to collaborate with other partners and Non-Governmental Organisations for support.
Kenya managed to reach out to 104 percent and 93 percent of children aged below 10 years during the first and second phases of mass polio vaccination conducted in the months of September and November this year.
By Salome Alwanda
