Hospitals in western Kenya went for months without crucial vaccines

The revelation comes in the wake of a report that puts Kenya on the spot over the loss of Sh1.6 million for vaccines from donors.PHOTO: COURTESY

Some hospitals in western Kenya faced shortage of major vaccines for some months in 2015 and 2016, it has emerged.

The revelation comes in the wake of a report that puts Kenya on the spot over the loss of Sh1.6 million for vaccines from donors.

At Kakamega County Referral Hospital, a source who sought anonymity said the facility had BCG vaccines for preventing tuberculosis and meningitis among newborns but there were no diluting kits and syringes between January to April this year.

In countries where tuberculosis is common, one dose is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible.

At Vihiga County Referral Hospital, the BCG vaccine was lacking for several days last week but the matter was attributed to delays in placing an order.

"We recently just had one case where we did not have the BCG vaccines on a weekend and it was because the facility failed to give an early order. We had the vaccines at our county store," said a worker at the facility.

At the moment, vaccines for measles, polio, tetanus and pneumococcal vaccines are in plenty at Vihiga County Referral.

However, the anti-rabies and snake vaccines are also not in store at Vihiga.