Polio drive in Kenya will not be postponed

The Government said yesterday the polio immunisation campaign will go on as planned despite opposition from the Catholic Church.

Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri said attempts to mobilise the public against the vaccine is a serious violation of the right of children to health and survival.

The campaign will take place between August 1 and 5 in 32 counties. There will be another round of vaccination between August 29 and September 29th in 11 counties.

A child receiving polio vaccine. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

"We don't want to be like Nigeria where polio spread rapidly after religious leaders there campaigned against polio vaccination. The safety of the vaccine is beyond doubt," he said.

Dr Muraguri spoke a day after top Catholic Church bishops called on Kenyans to boycott the campaign citing safety concerns.

Through Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, the clerics said sampling and testing of the vaccines should be done to ensure they are safe.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also told the Catholic Church to stop calling for postponement of the immunisation.

WHO Country Representative Custodia Mandlhate said the vaccines are manufactured and procured to the highest standards and there is no reason to doubt their safety.

"The same vaccines that will be used in the immunisation campaign are the same ones used routinely by all health facilities, including those run by the Catholic Church. There is absolutely no reason to oppose efforts to protect our children from polio," she said.

The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) told Kenyans not to heed the boycott call. "We call on Kenyans to ignore the boycott call and turn out in large numbers to immunise their children from this deadly disease," said KMA chairperson, Elly Nyaim.