By ALI ABDI
In 1991, the Government with help of funds from the international community embarked on control of the killer tuberculosis (TB).
In northern Kenya, it set up TB manyattas with help from the Netherlands in 1995. By the end of that year most districts with a high prevalence of the disease also benefited from the project under the National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Programme (NLTP).
These gains, however, risk being lost as it emerged that dozens of infants in the region had failed to get vaccinated against the disease in the last three months.
In Upper Eastern’s Isiolo and Marsabit counties and neighbouring Samburu it was confirmed that supply of the crucial Bacillus Camille Guerin (BCG) vaccine had run out.
By mid this week, the hospitals had not received the vaccine with sources saying they had expected it last week.
An Isiolo resident who works for the Postal Corporation of Kenya in Meru town is among hundreds of parents whose children have been affected in Isiolo, Marsabit and Samburu counties.
The man, who declined to be identified, said he was advised by medics at Isiolo District Hospital to look for the vaccine in neighboring towns of Nanyuki and Meru.
No vaccines
“My son was born on May 4 and I was told the hospital had run short of the vaccine. I was advised to check for it in Nanyuki or Meru,” he told The Standard On Saturday. Medics now warn that the consequences could be devastating in nomadic areas where there’s little access to maternity and vaccination services.
But the Government denies these reports and maintains that fresh stocks of the vaccine were dispatched to the affected areas last week.
“We sent out the vaccine last week and there should be no problem accessing it now,” said the Director of Public Health Shahnaz Sharif.
While acknowledging that there may have been a delay in the acquisition and dispatch of the vaccine leading to the shortfall, Sharif said the matter had now been resolved with public health institutions expected to have received the supplies last week. “Our vaccine procurement depends on international manufacterers who are limited,” says Sharif.
The BCG vaccine was first introduced into the WHO Expanded Programme on Immunisation in 1974, but it wasn’t until 1921 that it was first used on humans. Although the vaccine does not prevent reactivation of latent TB, it continues to play an important role in the global fight against TB as the world awaits development of new vaccines.
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Authorities in the three counties were mum over the matter with sources revealing that the situation was critical and could lead to death of infants.
Reliable sources at Isiolo District Hospital confirmed the BCG vaccine shortage but faulted the Ministry of Public Health, which had promised fresh stocks.
“The hospital had been waiting for new supplies from early May. Last week, we were told to expect it by today. Nothing has arrived so far,’ said the source on Friday.
TB is a bacterial disease, which commonly affects the lungs and is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease. Newborn babies are supposed to be immunised within two weeks, according to WHO.
Estimates by the World Health Organisation put the figure of TB cases worldwide in 2010 to 8.8 million. In Kenya children account for 11 per cent of new TB infections each year, with the country ranked 13 out of 22 among those with a high TB burden.Globally at least 500,000 children aged below 14 got infected with TB in 2010, resulting in over 50,000 deaths.
In northern Kenya where communities are largely pastoralists, women lack access to maternity services due to poor infrastructure, traditional beliefs and ignorance.
Medical facilities
“Majority of pastoralists women give birth at home due to lack of access to medical facilities and bad roads. There is lack of awareness among them on the importance of mothers giving birth in hospitals,’’ said Shoba Liban, the coordinator of Pastoralists Women for Health and Education, an NGO operating in Isiolo.
Isiolo South Kanu secretary Hussein Ali Abduba said his area had also been affected.
“We have heard of the shortage but parents affected were promised their babies would get the vaccines. That is all I know,” said Mr Abduba.
In Marsabit, the largest county in the country and one of the remotest, local women largely deliver at home. The few who give birth in hospital had also been affected by the shortage. Marsabit Central Narc-Kenya chairman Alexander Barille said parents affected were seeking the vaccine from private hospitals managed by the Catholic Church and Africa Inland Church.
“We have received the report that public hospitals have run short of the vaccines. The few urban dwellers are turning to private hospitals. I am not certain whether the mission hospitals have the stock,’’ said Mr Barille.
In Samburu where the shortage had also been reported, parents were forced to travel to Nyahururu, Nakuru and Nairobi to look for the vaccine.
“I was forced to travel with a ten-day-old infant to Nyahururu to get the BCG vaccine. It was too expensive and tiring for both my wife and the infant,’’ said Isaac Lermarkoko, who had to hire a taxi at Sh20,000.
However, officials said they would ensure all infants affected would be vaccinated, but did not explain the fate of those time barred.
Additional reporting Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux