An emergency batch of 1.3 million doses of TB vaccine for babies will arrive on Friday to end a nationwide shortage that escalated last month.
Health Cabinet Secretary Cleophas Mailu yesterday said the vaccines will be distributed across the country immediately.
“We want to invest a lot in maternal and child health because that's the foundation of everything else,” he said.
Mailu spoke when he toured Health ministry institutions around the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Thousands of infants born since December have been at risk of TB, with medics warning the situation is severe in remote areas where there is already little access to maternity and vaccination services.
The ministry said the BCG shortage was due to manufacturing delays experienced across the world.
The vaccine works by stimulating the body's immune system to make infants resistant to TB, which mostly affects the lungs and is transmitted via droplets from the throat and lungs of infected people.
The World Health Organization says the shortage has been lingering for the past three years.
It said Kenya has been given priority because of its high TB burden of 268 people for every 100,000.
“Countries should be encouraged (where possible), to reduce wastage rates and review wastage rate used in calculation of requirement,” WHO said.
Kenya procures the vaccine doses through Unicef, which says the shortage will persist this year.
Unicef says in 2015 it received requests for 180 million doses from different countries but only 107 were available.
“The supply outlook for 2016-2018 is no longer constrained, and is sufficient to meet all country requirements,” Unicef says in its website.
At least 80 per cent of all Kenyan babies are injected with the vaccine on the arm.
In his tour, Dr Mailu said the ministry would revamp the government chemist.
He said the department, which has been operating inside derelict buildings built in 1940 near KNH, would move to new premises this year.
Mailu was accompanied by Health PS Nicholas Muraguri and other ministry officials.
This was the maiden tour for the two officials since they were confirmed in their various positions.
Dr Muraguri said they would develop a master-plan to revamp health institutions.
