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Kenya this week launched a five-day national polio immunization campaign in areas most at risk of transmission, while the United Nations warned that epidemics in some countries of the Horn of Africa threaten the efforts of Africa and the world to eradicate the disease.
According to the WHO, since the end of 2017, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia have experienced polio outbreaks.
The global effort to eradicate polio is striving to ensure that polio transmission ceases in the last endemic countries in the world, namely Afghanistan. , Pakistan and Nigeria, as well as in polio-affected countries such as Kenya.
The WHO said some countries, especially in Africa, are more vulnerable to polio transmission due to weak public health and vaccination systems, as well as travel or exchange links. with endemic countries and epidemics.
Kenya is targeting 2.6 million children aged 0 to 59 months in 11 countries at high risk of infection during this campaign which ended Wednesday.
The children received an oral polio vaccine that protects them from polio, a disease that paralyzes and even kills infants.
Kenya: a dream without polio: take the time
"In 2018, Kenya detected poliovirus in samples of wastewater collected in Kamukunji, Nairobi, as part of activities to protect children from the virus and enhance the immunity of the population, Five polio vaccination campaigns were conducted in 12 countries, "said WHO Representative Iheoma Onuekwusi said at the launch of the campaign in Mombasa.
"And in countries affected by the polio outbreak like Kenya, as long as there are counties in which wild poliovirus is circulating, every country still risks importing the polio virus." The main challenge underlying the eradication of polio is the children missing many times during the delivery of vaccines, "warned Dr. Onuekwusi.
May cause paralysis
A team of health workers and community volunteers conducted the exercise in homes, churches, mosques, schools, recreation and other convention centers.
Dr. Wekesa Masasabi, Acting Director General of Health in Kenya, said children under five are particularly vulnerable to disease because their immunity is not fully developed to combat them.
Dr. Masasabi said that in the last six years, Kenya has remained polio-free and that the last imported case of wild polio virus was reported on July 14 in 2013. At the time Currently, Afghanistan and Pakistan remain endemic, more than 125 countries in 1988.
"During the 2013 Garissa County epidemic, 14 people were paralyzed and resulted in two deaths, and concerted global efforts were made to eradicate polio," said the director-general of health in a statement. speech read in his name by Dr. Joel Gondi. , technical advisor to the director of the ministry.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease that is transmitted from person to person and is transmitted mainly through the fecal-oral route or, less frequently, in contaminated water or food.
It multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. According to WHO, the first symptoms of polio are fever, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, stiff necks and pain in the limbs.
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