11/05/2018
Dear Nairobians
As you may be aware, there's a polio campaign going on that began on 9th May and will end this Sunday 13th May 2018.
The campaign has been prompted by the isolation of polio viruses from the sewerage system of Nairobi, an indication that the virus is being shed by asymptomatic individuals (polio can paralyse as well as fail to paralyse some individuals who carry the virus and continue spreading it unknowingly).
Polio spreads extremely fast and easily through faecal-oral route meaning you could easily get unknowingly infected and spread it to under 5 year olds.
Polio has no cure and causes paralysis, but can easily be prevented free of charge via vaccination.
What we (Ministry of Health) are doing with this and the June, July campaigns is to completely prevent the virus from infecting our children by helping them fight off the virus through repeated vaccination whenever it makes attempts to invade their immune system. This way, the virus is left with no human to host itself in and instead ends up dying in the environment.
So far we have done well and have had no cause for alarm but the kind of polio virus we have detected this time is an indication of reduced immunity among our children, a good number of whom are underimmunized due to not receiving the routine vaccine.
Kindly cooperate and ensure every under 5 year old child near you including that of your househelp, watchman, workers, etc are protected (regardless of previous vaccination status) because Polio Anywhere is Polio Everywhere
Message from Dr Jackson Kioko,
Director of Medical Services
