Old rumours of secret sterilisation still drive tetanus vaccine hesitancy in Kenya.
The rumours, amplified by some Catholic Church faithful in 2014, still impede tetanus vaccinations in Kenya, a report by Kenya Medical Research Institute and Pwani University shows.
Some Catholic doctors and clergy in 2014 claimed the tetanus toxoid vaccines were laced with an anti-pregnancy hormone.
Multiple tests in Kenya and evidence from other countries showed these claims were untrue.
But researchers say thousands of Kenyan women continue to refuse the vaccine, claiming it is a secret birth control method.
For instance, in Kilifi, 26 per cent of people interviewed last year said they know women in their community who have refused or were hesitant to take maternal vaccination.
“Reasons given for refusals include religion and rumours that have spread in the community that the tetanus toxoid vaccine was a family planning method,” the researchers say in their study. The paper is titled "Assessing risk perceptions that contribute to tetanus toxoid maternal vaccine hesitancy in Kilifi County, Kenya."
It is available on the preprint platform Medrxiv, awaiting peer review and possible publication in a journal.
Other researchers are from the Kilifi county government and the African Academy of Sciences.
The study was conducted in Kilifi last year by randomly sampling expectant women attending antenatal clinics.
Most participants had primary level education and the median age was 33.
Nearly all of them (total 104) said they have ever heard of the tetanus toxoid vaccine. The participants reported that people from particular religious groups do not subscribe to vaccine uptake when expectant or even for their children.
“It was perceived that the tetanus vaccine was a family planning method, a message which was reinformed when the Kenyan government rolled out tetanus vaccination campaign among school-going girls,” the authors said.
“The fact that boys were excluded in the campaign made the community suspicious that the vaccine was to control fertility among young women.”
The tetanus toxoid is the only maternal vaccine approved by the Kenya Expanded Program on Immunisation. Since its introduction in 2003, coverage remains low with only 50 per cent of women receiving two or more TT doses in their last pregnancy, according to the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey.
The vaccine protects women of childbearing age from tetanus and their newborn infants against neonatal tetanus. Tetanus causes painful muscle spasms, fractures and can lead to death.
Despite the low coverage, in 2018 Kenya was certified to have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus by reducing incidences to below one case per 1,000 live births per year.
"Despite the compelling benefits achieved through vaccination, there is a growing concern about vaccine hesitancy," the study says.
The authors recommend continuous community engagement to address the fears, misconceptions and rumours around tetanus vaccine uptake.
They say this will lay grounds for future vaccine rollout for expectant mothers.
