Nyamira South Sub-county public health officer Fred Mogotu has asked chiefs to sensitise the residents about the ongoing polio vaccination that kicked off Saturday to ensure all children are immunized.
The officer told the chiefs to intervene in cases of any parent’s refusal to take their children to get the jab.
Mogotu was speaking on Monday during a health stakeholders meeting at Nyamira hospital hall before the exercise began.
The stakeholders, who also included church leaders were asked to support the vaccination exercise and sensitize the residents about the need to have their children undergo the process.
Mogotu said they target to immunize 34,386 children aged five and below at the end of the exercise.
“In the past we have always achieved 80 per cent target and now we are looking into ensuring we are at the mark of 100 per cent,” he added.
The officer called on parents to ensure their children are vaccinated in the drive to stump out polio.
He said health workers will move from house to house giving oral polio vaccines to children under the age of five whether they had or not been vaccinated before.
Polio is a disease that causes limb paralysis and is targeted for eradication from the face of the earth.