Ministry says polio vaccination is safe

A child receives the polio vaccine in Kisumu in 2017. Official says oral immunisation not the cause of high temperatures in children. [File, Standard]

An outbreak of influenza has been blamed for the fever in some of the children vaccinated against polio.

The Ministry of Health's head of the Health Promotion Unit, Sammy Mahugu, said the vaccine against polio type two did not cause high body temperatures.

Children under the age of five are receiving the vaccine orally. However, there is another version of the polio vaccine that can be administered as an injection. It is more expensive.

“One thing we should get clear is that the vaccine works in the intestines. The issue of fever can only occur if it was being administered directly into the blood,” said Dr Mahugu.

Influenza outbreaks

He said polio immunisation was being carried out when there are influenza outbreaks, which might make the vaccine to be mistakenly blamed for causing fever and even deaths.

The doctor said the deaths of the children who had high temperatures should be investigated, but exonerated the polio vaccine.

In April, when the Government started a vigorous polio immunisation campaign, some parents claimed that the vaccine was making their children ill.

Some of them do not want their children to be vaccinated during the ongoing campaign. The Government plans to carry out three rounds of vaccination. The latest was unveiled during the weekend in Kitui County. The door-to-door campaign is targeting 2.8 million children.

The vaccination started after the polio type two virus was found in sewage in Kamkunji, Nairobi, on March 21, just as Kenya was getting ready to be declared polio-free. The third round of immunisation will take place in a month’s time.