About 19 million children will get anti-measles injections in Kenya’s biggest vaccination campaign against the disease. The week-long nationwide programme will start on Monday.
This time, the ministry will administer the MR vaccine that also protects children against rubella/German measles. It is a mild but potentially dangerous viral disease. Measles is highly contagious and can kill children directly or by weakening their immune systems, making them susceptible to infections. Health ministry Head of Vaccines and Immunisation Dr Ephantus Maree said they will vaccinate children aged between nine months and 14 years from May 16-24.
He said the vaccine is safe and advised parents to take children who had been vaccinated in the past for immunisation.“Our routine coverage for measles covers about 80 per cent of children under one year. Each year, we miss about 20 per cent of the children. If our target is 1.4 million in one year that means over 300,000 children will not get vaccinated,” Maree said.
He said among those vaccinated, not all of them develop immunity.Maree said only about 85 per cent develop immunity.“That means we have more than 100,000 who do not develop immunity, although they are vaccinated. When you add those who are not vaccinated and those who don’t develop immunity, you have about 500,000 a year. That’s a big number,” he said. The campaigns will be conducted in health facilities and in temporary shelters in churches and schools. The last measles campaign was in 2012.
Dr Maree said it has continually engaged religious groups on the safety of the vaccines and the ministry expects no resistance this time.