Machakos County is running out of measles, BCG and polio vaccines, the County Executive Committee Member(ECM) for Health Dr. Daniel Yumbya has revealed.
He said majority of the health facilities have depleted stocks of the three vaccines throwing the immunisation programme across the county into limbo.
Addressing the press in Machakos Thursday, Dr. Yumbya said the county government would, as a stop gap measure, redistribute the vaccines from those health facilities that have not run out stock to ensure that infants and young children do not miss the vital inoculation.
“I have issued a directive for the facilities that have the vaccines to share with those that have depleted theirs as we wait for the next cause of action,” he said.
The county executive called on the national government to reconsider the decision to cut budget on the lifesaving immunisation and fast track the procurement of the vaccines.
“The reason we are experiencing the outage is because of the budget cuts, but we are appealing to the national government to reconsider the decision which may put the lives of our children in danger,” he said.
On the ongoing clinical officers and laboratory technologists strike, Yumbya said the county government was engaging the union leaders to agree on a return to work formula to avert a health crisis.
“As a county our health facilities have not been severely affected by the strike because we have some of the striking health workers on duty, we are however appealing to them to return to work,” he said.
By Roselyne Kavoo
