Public called on to support measles campaign

The Kenyan government plans to launch a major measles vaccination campaign towards the end of June to tackle a disease that kills about 50 children in the country every day. Julius Meme, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, said on Wednesday that the US $15 million (1.1 billion Kenya shilling) campaign, to be held from 17 and 23 June, would target more than 14.6 million children between nine months and 14 years of age. The ministry and partner organisations involved in the venture on Wednesday spoke out to reassure the Kenyan public that the vaccines had been tested and found safe, and urged people to stop spreading rumours that they were somehow laced with the HIV/AIDS virus, the ruling party's Kenya Times newspaper reported on Thursday. Auto-disposable syringes and needles will be used in the June campaign for the single injection needed for each child, to ensured that the process will be safe in this era of HIV/AIDS, according to humanitarian sources. "The syringe and needle become 'disabled' after use and therefore cannot be reused," they said. Meme on Wednesday appealed to all communities "to shun baseless claims" about the vaccines, and join in the fight against measles by taking their children for vaccinations, which are to be administered at selected schools and other centres countrywide. Measles is a severe disease, with about 10 percent of cases resulting in complications (some of them potentially lethal), and contributes directly or indirectly to about 20 percent of deaths of children under five years, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). "In Africa, any child not protected through immunisation will invariably come down with the disease during his or her lifetime, and this could - in serious cases - result in death or permanent brain damage," according to health officials. They said Kenya was being specifically targeted at this time, in the biggest campaign ever in Africa, because the country had witnessed a sharp drop in immunisation cover in recent years - and a subsequent increase in measles cases. Measles cover was not at 76 percent in Kenya, which was still "inadequate to bring measles under control", according to UNICEF. A pool of unprotected children has been accumulating over the years and, when the number of these children reaches a critical mass, an outbreak occurs. Coverage of at least 95 percent is required to break that cycle, it added. And to reach that coverage level, "all children must be immunised, even if they have received the vaccine before". Joining the Ministry of Health in the initiative are UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the US-based Center for Disease Control, and the US and Kenya Red Cross Societies. In addition to the measles vaccine, children between six months and five years are to be given Vitamin A supplements to boost their resistance to disease. Polio vaccines are also to be administered to children of five years and less in 12 districts which have had low coverage in the past, these being Nairobi, Turkana, Mandera, Wajir, West Pokot, Marsabit, Isiolo, Garissa, Ijara, Tana River, Lamu and Moyale, according to local media. In addition, women aged between 15 and 49 years in districts with a high risk of tetanus (including Kisumu, Busia and Rachuonyo) will be given Maternal Neo-Natal Tetanus shots to protect new-borns and future children. UNICEF will play a key role in the measles campaign through financial support, community mobilisation and education, procurement and distribution of vaccines, and management of the cold chain needed to get vaccine supplies to local level where they are needed, including in some of the most remote parts of Kenya, according to the agency's country office representative, Dr Nichola Alipui. Health officials said on Wednesday that measles - of which some 18,000 children die in Kenya each year - remained "a major priority" of the country's Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) in all regions, and that the June campaign would be targeting all children in and out of school, including the country's numerous street children. With 65 percent of the target population intended to be immunised in schools, and parents required to give their permission, UNICEF made "a special appeal to parents and communities to undertake house-to-house canvassing as a way of ensuring hard-to-reach children receive the vaccine." It was crucial that all children be vaccinated in the June campaign, "even those who have previously received the measles vaccine", UNICEF reiterated.