The Department of health in Elgeyo Marakwet County will conduct a measles, Rubella and typhoid vaccination exercise starting July 5th to 14.
The County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for health Monica Rotich said all children aged between 9-59 months across the county will be vaccinated against measles and rubella irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated or not in the routine vaccination exercise.
Mrs Rotich also disclosed that children aged between 9-14 years old will be vaccinated against typhoid in the 10-day exercise.
Speaking during a stakeholder sensitisation exercise at the Iten county referral hospital, the CECM said the exercise will take place in all 131 health facilities in the county, churches, mosques and schools,
She therefore called on teachers to ensure that the children in their respective schools are vaccinated and appealed to community health volunteers to help in reaching out to non-school going children.
Speaking during the same function, the county director for medical services Dr. Isaac Kipyego said vaccination against measles and rubella has been declining saying in 2022 it stood at 75% and dropped to 67% in 2023, a situation he termed as worrying.
The medic said while most parents take their children for the first dose at 9 months, few take them to health facilities for the second dose which is administered at 18 months.
The CECM called for allocation of more resources to prevention as opposed to the current situation where more resources are allocated to treatment saying it was much cheaper to prevent than to treat.
“For every one shilling we use for prevention, a total of nine shillings is used for treatment so we should focus more on prevention which is cheaper, ” she said.
The CECm said the typhoid vaccine will continue being administered in health facilities as part of the routine vaccination at 9 months for all children after the end of the 10 days campaign.
Dr Kipyego advised against self-medication saying residents should visit health facilities for testing and treatment.
By Alice Wanjiru
