More than 3.6 million children were reached and vaccinated during the recent polio vaccination campaign, which took place from 2-6 October 2024.

The Director General (DG) for Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth, said most of the 3.6 million children who received the vaccine are healthy, except for a few reports of post-vaccination events, an indication that the vaccines are generally safe.

Amoth said the Ministry of Health has received 23 reports of post-vaccination events of concern to parents and caregivers of children following polio vaccination.

The operation covered nine high-risk counties: Nairobi, Busia, Bungoma, Turkana, Trans Nzoia, West Pokot, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado.

The DG said that caregivers and parents reported these post-vaccination concerns to various nearest health facilities and through the mobile reporting platform *271#, which allows the public to report any concerns to the Mobile Electronic Pharmacovigilance Reporting System (mPvERS ).

“The Ministry engaged the Kenya National Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee (KNVSAC) which met on 23-24 October 2024 to review all reports received and found that of the 23 cases reported and investigated, 16 were minor, ranging from generalized itchy rashes, fever, conjunctivitis, rashes, abdominal pain, diarrhea among others,” Amoth said.

He said seven of the reported cases were serious, presenting with generalized red swelling and sometimes itchy skin and fever, lower limb weakness, seizures, diarrhea and vomiting, and herpes zoster.

Amoth said a review of serious and non-serious events showed that 16 of the reported cases have been resolved, while five are pending.

Two of the reported cases resulted in death.

“Further investigation of reported and investigated cases revealed that 18 cases were classified as coincidental, often due to underlying or emergent health conditions unrelated to the vaccine.” Amoth said.

He said factors supporting this classification include, timing of symptoms, pre-existing health problems and environmental exposure to infections.

“Most cases of adverse events after immunization (AEFI) were classified as coincidental, indicating that most reactions were likely due to external or underlying factors rather than the vaccine itself,” Amoth said.

He said this finding highlights the importance of comprehensive causality assessments to clearly distinguish coincidental events from true vaccine-related reactions, thus ensuring public confidence in the safety of the immunization program.

“As the country moves towards the second round of the polio vaccination campaign planned for November 9-13, 2024, the Ministry of Health would like to emphasize that polio is a highly infectious and debilitating viral disease that is preventable through vaccination , with the potential to cause paralysis in a matter of hours among young children who are not fully vaccinated and can even lead to death,” Amoth said.

He said that although there is no cure for polio, the disease can be prevented by receiving oral polio vaccine (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and several booster doses through immunization campaigns.

Amoth said all Kenyan children under the age of five are expected to be up-to-date with their childhood vaccines if they receive the polio vaccine at birth, six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks under the immunization schedule routine.

“The Ministry of Health and the global community have a vision to eradicate polio and we can only do it by achieving high vaccination coverage against this debilitating disease,” Amoth said.

“We continue to urge all parents and caregivers to bring their children for routine immunization as per the immunization schedule and to use their children during vaccination campaigns so that we can eradicate this debilitating disease.”

“We reiterate that it is not bad for a child to receive a repeat dose of polio vaccine during national vaccination campaigns,” he said.

Amoth appealed to the public to cooperate with the vaccination teams, report any adverse events to the nearest health facility or by dialing *271#, 719 or calling 0729 471 414/0732 353 535