Medic administering a vaccine to a child at a past function. A hospital in Wajir is withholding birth certificates to compel newborn babies to receive the vaccination. (Photo/nepjournal.com)
A hospital in Wajir has embarked on a pilot project to create awareness on the benefits of vaccination of newborn children.
According to a local daily, medics at Abakore Health Centre are not releasing birth certificates of newborn babies at the facility in a bid to compel the parents to undertake vaccination of their young ones to protect them from different health-related complications.
The facility is out to ensure that the parents take their children for all the important vaccines including polio, influenza, tetanus, measles, BCG, and pneumonia.
Speaking to The Star, Rose Ajambo, a senior nurse at Abakor, said that most of the parents in the county are not taking their children for vaccination.
She also said that they conducted research across the county before embarking on the projects aimed at reducing cases of infant deaths reported in the region.
“Before rolling out the project, the few mothers who delivered to hospital received birth notifications. They would return later for the certificate. Their babies only received one dose of vaccine,” Ajambo said, as quoted by the local daily.
The nurses also said that some of the parents have been giving them a hard time by demanding the birth certificates but they have educated them on the need to go for vaccination.