• Dr Adnaan Mustafa, a Pediatrician at at the Nairobi West Hospital, said whereas vaccines don't prevent infection, they lower risk of death due to severe symptoms.
• The Pediatrician said it is important that after giving birth, a mother ensures her child gets all the required vaccines within the first few months and years of life.
Image: HANDOUT
Parents have been encouraged to make sure that their children get all the required immunisation to guard them against preventable childhood ailments.
Dr. Adnaan Mustafa, a Pediatrician at at the Nairobi West Hospital, said it is more important for children to be immunised as the highest mortality was in children under five years.
“What vaccines does is that it stimulates the body’s own immune system to protect the child against subsequent infection or disease. For example, when a child gets the Rota Virus vaccine of the four complete doses, the probability of that child dying from Rota virus-related diarrhoea is less than 5 per cent,” the doctor told the Star.
He said whereas vaccines don't prevent infection, they lower risk of death due to severe symptoms. Dr Mustafa said this applies to Covid.
"It’s not that when a person gets Covid vaccine will not get Covid but it saves you from severe complications. I know there are controversies around Covid vaccines but the probability of you going to the ICU is low."
The Pediatrician said it is important that after giving birth, a mother ensures her child gets all the required vaccines within the first few months and years of life.
"They are meant to give your baby protection against illnesses and diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, mumps, typhoid, chicken pox, meningitis, rotavirus, tetanus, and polio, among others," he said.
The immunisations are set under the Kenya Expanded Program Immunisation (KEPI) Schedule.
Upon birth, the first vaccine a child receives is Hepatitis B followed by BCG (Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine) and OPV mostly given within the first two weeks.
BCG is given by injection and is primarily meant to build immunity against Tuberculosis (TB).
“And then we have the 6,10 and 14 weeks. They get the same vaccine but three times which includes the pentavalent vaccine, a pneumococcal vaccine that prevents severe pneumonia and the Rota Virus vaccine.”
The baby is given Measles vaccine at six months in the event of a measles outbreak or if the baby is exposed to HIV. It is administered on the right upper arm.
Also, a Vitamin A supplement is given at six months to prevent Vitamin A deficiency.
Vitamin A is essential for growth and development, cell recognition, vision, immune function and reproduction.
According to the WHO, vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of childhood blindness and also increases the risk of death from common childhood infections such as measles and other illnesses that cause diarrhea.
At nine months, Dr Mustafa said the baby gets the Measles vaccine and Rubella vaccine which protects against Rubella disease which resembles measles.
One dose is administered at nine months and the second dose at 15 to 18 months.
Dr. Mustafa adds, "Then there is Yellow Fever Vaccine which is given from nine months onwards but in Kenyan protocol, it is only given to children who reside in Yellow Fever endemic areas."
Kenya this week joined the world in commemorating the African Vaccination Week (World Immunisation Week) from April 24 to April 30, as well as World Malaria Day on April 25, 2023.
Commemoration of these important days is key in that it reinforces the need to pay attention to immunization and the prevention of disease.