The Ministry of Health and Unicef are preparing to vaccinate millions of people in at least 12 counties following the outbreak of yellow fever.
Head of the division of disease surveillance and response Dr Emmanuel Okunga said the vaccinations could begin as early as next week.
“Routine immunisation of children continues but response vaccination will happen most likely within two weeks,” Okunga told the Star.
Yellow fever is a viral disease spread by a particular mosquito.It can be fatal or cause serious illness, but most people recover.
“This depends on risk assessment results and vaccine mobilisation from global stockpile.” he added.
Acting director general for health Patrick Amoth said they would begin in 12 counties considered high-risk.
“The ministry plans to conduct yellow fever vaccination in Isiolo and other high-risk counties including Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit, Meru, Samburu, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot, Turkana, and possibly Tana River and Mandera,” Amoth said in a statement.
The outbreak, announced on Friday, was first confirmed on January 12 but the ministry has not explained why it kept quiet for two months.
At least three people have been killed by the disease, while 15 others are suspected to be sick.
There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, but the vaccine is highly effective and offers lifelong protection after just one dose.
However, the world continually faces a shortage of the vaccine because it can take up to six months to produce a batch of usable vaccines.
Globally, around 80 million doses of yellow fever vaccine are made each year, and they can only be stored for a maximum of three years. There are only four major yellow fever vaccine manufacturers in the world, with one – Institut Pasteur de Dakar – based in Senegal.
The vaccination drive in Kenya will be helped by a recent approval for vaccine dose splitting by the World Health Organization.
A recent study by Kenya Medical Research Institute shows one dose, split and given to five people, is effective.
The Epicentre study, in collaboration with Kemri, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, and WHO, conducted between November 2017 and February 2018, showed people given one-fifth of the dose had an immunological response that was considered non-inferior to the standard dose.
This is the second reported outbreak in Kenya.
In the first outbreak in 1992-1993, only 26 people were confirmed to have been infected with the disease. Six people died.
However, epidemiological investigations strongly suggested that reported cases and deaths were underestimated.
“Given that three per cent of the yellow fever cases present with jaundice, yellow fever illness in this outbreak may have attacked at least 800 persons,” researchers concluded in a study published by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
It was co-authored by former Kemri chairman Naftali Agata, Peter Tukei, Grace Kuria, George Ademba, and John Ouma and other foreign authors.
In March 2016, Kenya also reported two yellow fever cases in travellers who had contracted the disease in Angola. No local transmission has occurred.
“The two persons got the infection in the first week of March 2016 and were already beyond the transmission phase by the time they arrived in Kenya,” former Health CS Dr. Cleopa Mailu said.
On April 1, 2016, Mailu was again forced to deny reports that Kenya had an ongoing yellow fever outbreak.
The reports were spread by Ugandan Ministry of Health which had placed pull-up posters that read in part, “There is a yellow fever outbreak in Angola, Kenya and DRC.”
(Edited by V. Graham)
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