Kenya will continue with routine polio immunisation and mop-up campaigns, even though no single case has been reported since 2013, the World Health Organisation has said.
WHO said it will support this exercise, because there are still two endemic countries in the world -- Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“To sustain polio-free status, the country surveillance teams, with support from WHO and partners, have continued to monitor the health of children under routine immunisation in order to avoid any undetected cases,” said WHO country representative Dr Rudi Eggers.
He praised Kenya for rapid action after 14 cases of imported wild poliovirus type 1 were reported in 2013.
“Health teams from the Ministry of Health traversed the country to its farthest corners and most inaccessible areas with support from WHO, and other partners to do supplementary immunisation activities - polio campaigns,” he said in a statement to mark yesterday's World Polio Day.
According to the Health ministry, over the past four years at least 10 million Kenyan children have received multiple doses of vaccine under the guidance of the country’s Polio Outbreak Preparedness and Response Plan.
“The unsung heroes are the hundreds of teams of committed health workers and community health volunteers who worked for days on end, some under very difficult circumstances even in remote, hot and hard to reach areas,” Eggers said
The WHO also thanked families for allowing their children to be vaccinated.
In the past one year, no African country has reported a single case of polio since the outbreak in Nigeria in 2016.
However, Africa and the eastern Mediterranean region – which includes countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait – remain the only regions not certified polio-free.
Certification of polio eradication is conducted on a regional basis. Each region can consider certification only when all countries in the area demonstrate the absence of wild poliovirus transmission for at least three consecutive years in the presence of certification standard surveillance.
“If no new case is confirmed, and surveillance is quickly strengthened, the African Region can be certified to have eradicated polio by the end of 2019,” said WHO African Regional director Dr Matshidiso Moeti.
She said the Nigeria outbreak, African leaders embarked on the largest ever polio campaign in Africa.
“Over 190,000 polio vaccinators simultaneously immunised more than 116 million children under five in 13 countries in a coordinated effort in West and Central Africa,” she said in a statement.