UNICEF’s Kenya representative, Pirkko Heinonen has asked parents with school going children to ensure that they are vaccinated during the countrywide immunisation campaign.
“Contact your children’s school today and confirm that it has been contacted to receive immunisation. Otherwise, we will lose this campaign,” said Heinonen.
At the same time, Health PS, Nicholas Muraguri added that measles is a highly infectious illness with high mortality rates, especially among children, further explaining that recently, three children succumbed in Mandera County due to the disease.
‘‘20 percent of our children don’t get vaccinated and over the years, we have cohorts of children who were never vaccinated and we know the value of the vaccine. Rubella presents as Measles and it can result in women delivering children with serious birth defects including heart issues,” explained Muraguri.
According to Red Cross, Kenya is conducting one of the largest immunisation campaigns in history where over 18 million people will receive measles-rubella vaccine to prevent unnecessary disease and death.
According to Ministry of Health, rubella infections can lead to blindness, deafness, mental retardation and other conditions that affect children development despite the fact that measles claims the lives of at least 150,000 children worldwide each year.