West Pokot county vaccinated more than 97 per cent of the residents against meningitis in the recent nine-day campaign.
Those who missed it can still get vaccinated at any public health facility.
Speaking to press on Tuesday in his office in Kapenguria, West Pokot chief Health officer Peter Adoki said they reached their target.
They surpassed it in West Pokot and Pokot South subcounties. In some areas, everyone was vaccinated.
Meningitis is a bacterial or viral infection of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can cause severe brain damage and death. It also can cause paralysis, blindness and hearing loss.
Meningitis is transmitted from person to person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions from an infected person.
Symptoms include headache, stiff neck, high fever, sensitivity to light, confusion and vomiting.
Health workers faced problems because some people had migrated to Uganda in search of pastures and water and had not returned.
He said they moved to the border to ensure people were vaccinated.
Insecurity and banditry also hampered the drive by the national and county governments.
“Cattle rustling has reemerged along the border. Many people have been displaced and others migrated to safe places,” Adoki said.
Since 2016 many cases were reported in the region with international borders.
The mass immunisation targeted than 300,00 children and adults aged between one and2 9 years. They are at the highest risk of infection.
The free vaccine was administered by injection in all public health facilities and some schools, churches, mosques, colleges and other sites.
The campaign was also carried out in Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera and Wajir. They are considered high risk because they border South Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda, which lie within the meningitis belt.
(Edited by V. Graham)
