Polio vaccination was safe, Health Ministry assures

A four-year-old child being given the polio vaccine in Kisumu in 2017. The Ministry of Health has said the jab is safe. [File, Standard]

The Ministry of Health on Saturday dismissed reports that two children developed complications from a polio vaccine.

The reports on social media said two children from Nairobi and Kiambu had skin lesions following the concluded polio campaign.

Director of Medical Services Dr. Jackson Kioko said the children were diagnosed with a foot and viral infection caused by the coxsackie virus, not the polio virus.

“The Ministry wishes to inform the public that the polio campaign coincided with the season when the country experienced an upsurge of viral infections, including flu and coxsackie, among others,” he said.

Kioko urged parents to take any sick children to hospital.

“Such viral infections caused by coxsackie and the flu virus are self-limiting and only require supportive treatment and management if there are no other underlying medical conditions compromising the immune system.”

The World Health Organization also said the vaccine was safe. 

“Polio campaigns hugely successful to prevent crippling disease. Vaccine #OPV is safe: billions of kids have been successfully vaccinated & protected. Only tiny few have negative effects & none have had skin conditions caused by polio vaccine,” WHO posted on Twitter.

In August, parents complained the vaccine was making their children ill. Some said the children had high body temperatures.

At the time, the ministry was conducting polio vaccination in 12 high-risk counties.

The Ministry at the time blamed an outbreak of influenza for the fever in some of the children vaccinated against polio.

Health Promotion Unit head Sammy Mahugu said the vaccine against polio Type Two did not cause high body temperatures.