Group lauds Kenya's efforts in Polio eradication

VillageReach Global Technical Team director Tapiwa Mukwashi has said Kenya is one of the African countries that is at the forefront of eradicating Polio. 

He said they have worked in up to 15 countries in Africa and were impressed with how progressive Kenya's efforts in Polio eradication are. 

Mukwashi spoke on Wednesday when VillageReach opened its Africa Regional Hub in Nairobi. 

"In Kenya, we got very good feedback that the government is already working with the private sector in delivering the Polio lab samples. The government was already very evolved in terms of using some technology in tracking the temperature of the vaccines," he said. 

Mukwashi said in other countries, they had to train people how to introduce temperature monitoring devices. 

"In other countries, we were urging governments to engage with the private sector in the fight against Polio. But a lot of these things were already taking place in Kenya," he said. 

Mukwashi said Kenya is not in much need of support as they have witnessed in other countries.

In Kenya, Mukwashi said they only needed a small budget to strengthen coordination on how to collaborate and share information globally with the polio community. 

"Our functions in Kenya were limited to working directly with the government. In other countries, we had to identify an NGO to facilitate how to work with the government, setting up the transportation mechanisms and contracting with technology providers in our work," he said. 

Mukwashi said according to the World Health Organisation, Polio samples are supposed to be delivered and tested within 72 hours. 

He commended Kenya for being able to maintain the timeliness of the testing samples. 

"Kenya is at the forefront in the eradication of Polio. Other countries can learn from Kenya," Mukwashi said. 

"Kenya has provided a very strong case on how the government can steer what look like very urgent and critical issues and perform very well at it."

Mukwashi said once Polio samples are taken, they are put in cooler boxes similar to those used in transporting vaccines because they need a certain level of protection for the samples. 

He said the time taken in transporting the samples to the labs for testing is what causes some countries to struggle to achieve Polio eradication. 

Mukwashi said some countries lack the Polio labs to do the tests and end up sending them to other countries to get the results. 

"Locally, Kenya has a Polio lab. Other countries have to send them to South Africa. I know countries like Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique which send to South Africa," he said. 

Mukwashi said the Polio samples don't change with time, but the urgency in testing is to ensure a quick response from medics before it spreads further. 

"Polio is a very primitive disease and one that must be eradicated. While no one superman will eradicate Polio, the efforts must continue to evolve to exploit new and emerging technologies," he said.