• The global vaccine handling requirements dictate that vaccine vials are only usable for six hours once opened, and therefore remaining doses are discarded
• Covid-19 vaccine vials have more than one dose per vial ranging from 6 to14 doses per vial.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines being witnessed in the country is likely to see more doses expire or go to waste in the coming days.
Data from the Ministry of Health shows that so far, 843,718 doses have expired since the exercise begun in March last year.
According to the Vaccines Deployment Taskforce chair Dr Willis Akhwale, Kenya’s vaccine wastage rate by the end of March 2022 was estimated to be at 15 per cent; translating to nearly 2.7 million doses.
“As of October 13, 300,297 doses had been reported as wastages from counties in the system and we continue to urge them to report the remaining ones so that we update the auditors,” he said.
More than one year since the exercise commenced, the country still faces vaccine hesitancy, worsened by the lifting of the containment measures by the ministry that has made Kenyans assume the disease is over.
The global vaccine handling requirements dictate that vaccine vials are only usable for six hours once opened, and therefore remaining doses are discarded after the six hours to prevent contamination.
Covid-19 vaccine vials have more than one dose per vial ranging from 6-14 doses per vial.
The ministry is currently running a 10-days vaccination campaign in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
Dr Moses Owino, Head of Public Health in Embakasi region said there are a total of 105 personnel combing the ground to ensure an increase in uptake of vaccines among residents.
“Each team has about three people and our target is for them to reach 100 people which is a big challenge because right now we have lot of vaccine hesitancy; healthcare workers we take to offices, work places and markets get only 20 people,” he said.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
According to Christian Aid programmes manager, Abdul Agukoh, the low uptake of vaccines has been occasioned by preference for the single jab vaccines compared to those that require two doses.
“Going for 2 or 3 jabs is creating a lot of issue so individual are preferring one jab and it all boils down to sensitization and awareness,” he said.
“There was a political campaign that really took a lot of interest from us as Kenyans and even some of the agencies but now that the politics is done and dusted we need to ensure that we protect our various populace within the country.”
The Akhwale led taskforce is recommending that the IT infrastructure across the country be strengthened, and capacity building of health workers done to ensure consumption data for vaccines is available in a timely and completed manner.
According to Akhwale, the extent of internet penetration and critical IT supplies like smart phones, tablets and data bundles at remote health facilities is a unique challenge that has affected reporting rate and timeliness of Covid-19 vaccines.
“There has been delayed reporting on the doses used and those wasted from each of the nearly 4,000 vaccination posts countrywide,” he said.
General uptake data shows 22.2 million vaccines have been administered across the country; 18.1 million to the population aged 18 years and above and another 2.6 million to those aged between 12 years and 18 years.
The proportion of adults fully vaccinated now stands at 35.8 per cent.