Mandera, Kenya: A seven-day campaign against measles has officially kicked off in Mandera County.
The campaign dubbed eradicate measles was officiated by the Health CEC Ahmed sheikh Mohamed on Monday morning.
The measles mop up campaign which would be carried out in partnership with UNICEF and WHO is aimed at vaccinating 460,000 children below 14 years across the county.
The outbreak of measles in the county was first reported in December last year in Mandera west Sub County and has so far claimed two lives.
Health executive Ahmed said the major challenge in curbing the outbreak of measles in the county is the nomadic movement of people.
“We are really proud of the hardwork of our health workers in trying to curb the outbreak of measles and we have dispatched a control team in all the sub counties to vaccinate and curb the spread of the measles,” Ahmed said.
The health sector in Mandera County was in a state of ruin with inadequate equipment before devolution and Mandera county government transformed the health sector by hiring more skilled manpower all the way from 157 before devolution to 733 now and increased the number of health facilities from 18 to 57 across the county.
Ahmed also urged parents to collaborate with the health workers and outreach programs to reach people living far from towns and villages have been put in place.
Governor Ali Roba said the county government`s commitment to completely turn around the health sector.