An ambitious vaccination campaign has aimed to boost prevention and better treat of typhoid among more than one million Kenyans. The campaign will prioritize women and children and is promising to bring about significant improvements in its administering of vaccines across the entire population.
The Sanofi Pasteur vaccine requiring a small amount of salt for injection has been handed to nutritionists to educate Kenyans on its safety and proper administration for immunizing small children. About one in five Kenyans ages 0-59 years have some traces of salt in their body. Experts insist on adequate administering of the solution to avoid debilitating adverse reactions.
Exercising a moratorium on conducting the highly contagious hand-to-mouth activities during the immunization campaign, the Kenyan prime minister declared this immunization for mothers and children whose children need the MMR vaccination.
But this requirement has polarized some Kenyan nationals into two major camps-alleviating diarrhea among children and serious reaction with the medical community.
Currently, children in Kenya suffer up to 20 million cases of diarrhea annually and hundreds of deaths as a result of the disease-meaning they are easily susceptible to typhoid.
The new immunization campaign is targeted at pregnant women, HIV-positive pregnant women, mothers with a history of malaria, lactating mothers and first-time mothers. Any child that falls short of meeting the requirements can undergo screening.
Covid-19, available in two doses over the course of a year, is the most recent and popular vaccine in Kenya.