The second round of the 5-day polio immunisation campaign that is ongoing in Kiambu County started on Saturday, October 7th, and will run until Wednesday, October 11th, this year, with organisers targeting to reach at least 3.1 million children under five years countrywide.
Kiambu is among ten counties that are at high risk of polio. Other counties are Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Kitui, Tana River, Garissa, Lamu, Wajir, and Mandera.
Kiambu is also among the counties where the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with county governments and partners, successfully undertook round one of the polio campaign in August this year, which targeted three other counties: Kajiado, Garissa, and Nairobi.
During the round one (1) campaign, a total of 1,960,748 children under five years were vaccinated out of a target of 1,879,402 children, translating to 104.2 per cent coverage.
Speaking to KNA today during the ongoing campaign, Kiambu Sub-County Medical Officer of Health Dr. June Nyakianda said the first campaign saw Kiambu achieve 95 per cent coverage after immunising 21,934 under-5-year-olds and covering 41,212 households, which is 131 per cent against the targeted 32,301 households.
“Our target for the second round of campaigns is to reach 22,191 children under the age of five,” she said, noting that they have teams in every ward who are going around the county.
Nyakianda said the exercise is being carried out in schools, daycare centres, homes, and public areas, and children will see their fingers marked with indelible ink, and homes where vaccination has taken place will also be marked with coloured chalk.
She, however, acknowledged that the biggest challenge they are experiencing is the communities’ reluctance to vaccinate.
“We want to reiterate that this vaccine is safe and urge parents to ensure that their children receive the required vaccine dose,” she added.
In June, the government reported six cases of polio, which prompted the state to conduct an emergency polio vaccination in four counties.
The ongoing polio outbreaks are squarely attributed to missed vaccination opportunities among children. This is the second and third planned vaccination rounds following the polio outbreak.
In this second campaign, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the transmission of the virus is still active in Garissa County, especially within the refugee camps, and the surveillance system had detected an additional two polio cases, bringing the total number to eight.
According to the 2019 Population Census, Kiambu County has a population of 2,417,735 with a total population of 87,594 children falling within the age group of 3 to 5 years.
By Wangari Ndirangu
