On Monday 11 September, NASA leader Raila
Odinga claimed that the tetanus vaccine administered by the Ministry of Health
causes infertility in women.
Raila Odinga then went ahead and claimed
that the government sterilised thousands of women and girls with the tetanus
vaccination deliberately.
The NASA leader also said that Catholic
Church was right to oppose the jab, which has allegedly caused infertility in
women between 14 and 49 years old.
“Tests results in our possession indicate
that some of the women who got this vaccination have since sought further tests
and obtained results indicating that they can never carry a pregnancy unless a
process of reversing the effects is initiated,” he said.
“Today, we can confirm to the country that
the Catholic Church was right. Thousands of our girls and women aged between 14
and 49 will not have children because of the State-sponsored sterilisation that
was sold to the country as tetanus vaccination,” He continued.
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However, the Ministry of health has refuted
the claims and reassured the public that the tetanus vaccine is secure and
safe.
"The Ministry of Health wishes to
reassure the public that the tetanus vaccine procured by the Government from
World Health Organisation pre-qualified firms through Unicef are safe, secure
and of high quality," said Dr Mailu.
Here are four key reasons the Ministry of
health gave to refute Raila Odinga's claims;
1.
The Ministry of health said
that the allegations by Raila are not backed by evidence and risk negatively
impacting national immunization programmes for children and woman.
2.
The World Health Organization
and Unicef said that the statement was misleading, intended to cause harm to
the public by dissuading them from accessing a necessary medical intervention.
3.
They also said that this was an
old matter that was settled three years ago.
4.
The Ministry of Health said the
statements were intended to cause fear and despondency among Kenyans.
