Lodwar- May 24, 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)

The County Government has mobilized partners to protect children against Measles Rubella (MR) and Typhoid Conjugate (TCV) through intensified 10-day vaccination campaign. This upcoming campaign is part of an ongoing nationwide integrated MR and TCV campaign scheduled for July 4th to 13th July 2025.

Both Measles and Typhoid are vaccine preventable diseases. However, they remain some of the leading causes of death among unvaccinated children. Increase in number of unvaccinated children also pose challenges of fatal disease outbreaks that often disrupts children’s growth and development.

To reduce the morbidity and mortality of MR and TCV, and with the support from UNICEF, World Health Organization, and National Vaccine and Immunization Program, the County Government has completed a two-day capacity building training for 55 sub-county healthcare workers.

The MR campaign targets approximately 7.5 million children aged nine to 59 months while TCV will be administered to about 21 million children aged between nine months and 14 years across all 47 counties. Both vaccines will be incorporated into Kenya’s routine immunization schedule afterwards.

This Trainers of Trainers training and microplanning meeting targeted sub-county healthcare workers including medical officers of health, health promotion officers, health records and information officer, community strategy focal persons, and expanded programme on immunization coordinators.

According to the Director for Family Health Gabriel Lopodo and Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Lead, Turkana County has had a protracted outbreak of Measles owing to low immunization coverage and cross border transmission from neighboring countries.

“This integrated MR and TCV campaign will not only reduce associated morbidities and mortalities from these target diseases but also increased immunity against these diseases for the target population,” he said.

Speaking during the meeting Deputy Director for Community Health Services Jonathan Long’iti mentioned the campaign is specifically targeted for schools. However, the vaccination will also be carried out at the health facilities and even door-to-door leaving no one behind and curb the spread.

“This campaign aims to stop the spread of Measles, which has currently registered 48 confirmed cases,” he said.

The MR vaccine protects against two highly contagious viral infections — Measles and Rubella — which can cause serious complications such as high fever, pneumonia, blindness, and even death. The TCV protects against typhoid fever which can lead to prolonged high fever, abdominal pain, and intestinal complications.

The Vaccine and Immunization Program Officer, Daniel Erus Emphasized that each Sub- County will designate specific health facilities as mini distribution points for vaccine emphasizing the success indicators will be a 95% coverage.

“We have a target in Turkana County, once the ten days lapse and we have reviewed all the data, we will be able to know how many children were vaccinated. Our turning point will be a 95% coverage including the remote villages,” he said.

Aroo and Loima sub-counties are the most affected with the Measles outbreak, although Aroo has not reported any new cases recently.

Aroo Sub- County Medical of Heath Officer Veronica Ereng mentioned that the campaign will involve outreaches in addition to all immunizing facilities.

“There is an urgency of achieving and maintaining high vaccination coverage and ensuring critical steps towards protecting our children and preventing future outbreaks” she said.

According to Gabriel Ekuwam, the Loima Sub-County MOH, there are 47 cases reported for Measles and 4 lab confirmed cases in Loima.

“We still have a number for unvaccinated children in a village called Epukee. This campaign is therefore very key to ensure we accomplish the targeted vaccination coverage and safeguard our children,” he said.

Joel Lochor, the Turkana West Sub-County MOH explained why such a training is crucial especially for Turkana West which is still facing a number of outbreaks including Cholera especially due to its unique population.

“I would advise the CHPs especially those in Turkana West who understand our recent health challenges to be keen in their reporting in order to capture the correct information that would guide our readiness for any potential outbreaks in future,” he stated.

Michael Kemboi, Disease Surveillance at World Health Organization (WHO) capacity build participants so that they can implement SIA as pee the provided standard and they’ll now be cascading the training further at the Sub-County level.

“This provides an opportunity for the trainees to understand the rationale and the technical background in orderto be able to demystify misconceptions at the community level,” said Kemboi.

The meeting was attended by other representatives from International Rescue Committee (IRC), UNICEF, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).