Kitui sect now accepts vaccination to save lives, says official

The Kavonokya sect members in Kitu county have denounced their hard stance against vaccination and are now taking the vaccine, health officials have said.

Kitui Health Promotion Officer Beatrice Charles the sect members allowed their children be vaccinated after health officials employed diplomacy when engaging them.

She said the sect's cooperation has helped them surpass their October vaccination target.

“We achieved 101 percent of our target,” Charles said.

She spoke at a stakeholders meeting at the Kitui County Referral Hospital where they laid down plans for the second round of polio vaccination.

Ministry of Health only included Kitui county in the second and third round of the nationwide polio vaccination.

The vaccination drive will begin today and will end on November 15. It is targeting all children under five years of age.

Charles said the exercise was precautionary since no case had been reported in Kitui.

Neighbouring Garissa county has however had cases reported in the refugee camps.

Pastrolists from Garissa, who are known to migrate to Kitui to graze their animals, will also be vaccinated.

“We  want to kick polio out of Kitui. With the support from partners, we will continue to carry out environmental and physical surveillance to keep Polio at bay,” she said.

Kitui county emergency operations centre representative, Alice Ngesa said health officials will carry out vaccination from home to home, at churches and mosques.

She said the vaccine was safe, effective and  had the approval of the World Health Organisation.

Ministry of Health has collaborated with partners to carry out three rounds of polio vaccination in 10 high risk counties namely Kitui, Nairobi and Kiambu.

Other counties in the anti-polio jab campaign are Kajiando, Machakos, Garissa Tana River,  Lamu, Mandera and Wajir.

The campaign targets children aged five years and below except for Dadaab and Fafi Subcounties in Garissa county, where the target is 15 years and below.