Immunization Forum promises greater collaboration between counties and national gove...

An intergovernmental immunization forum ended in Machakos, Kenya last week with a great promise for collaboration between the national health ministry and counties and with the support from partners.

The two-day meeting brought together about 200 health personnel from all 47 counties, the national office  and partners who included WHO, UNICEF, Clinton Foundation, Maternal and  Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), Health NGO’s Network  (Hennet), Population Services Kenya, Kenya Aids NGOs Consortium, (KANCO) and others.

Kenya celebrates African Vaccination Week

Kenya celebrated African Vaccination Week with launches, radio messages, community meetings and various mother-to-child-related activities around the country. The country delayed the celebrations in order to merge it with Malezi Bora (Good Upbringing) celebrations which are set aside annually to focus on increased uptake of immunization and other health services through sustained communication, advocacy and social mobilization. The celebrations were held on May 2-14, 2016.

Kenya marks the third UN Global Road Safety Week

Kenya joined the rest of the world to mark the third UN Global Road Safety Week scheduled for 04 to 10 May 2015. This year, the theme for the Global Road Safety week focused on children and Road Safety. The national event was commemorated on 7th May 2015 at General Kago primary school in Thika, Kiambu County. The day was presided over by the Director general of National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Mr Francis Meja.

Kenya joins the world in historical tOPV to bOPV SWITCH

Kenya joined the rest of the world in April 18, 2016, to implement SWITCH, the global health effort to shift from the use of trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine bOPV.

The activity countrywide was marked by an aggressive effort to retrieve all tOPV vaccine from all the health facilities and placement with bOPV.  

Closing the gap on pneumonia through immunization

Soon after the birth of her second child, a daughter she named Neema, Tabu Kalama found herself homeless and with no regular income. Ms Kalama had no option but to sleep with her newborn daughter and her 18-month old son in the meagre shelter of palm trees near the beach in Kilifi, in eastern Kenya.

It was June, among the coolest and wettest months there. “I was so worried that the baby would fall sick, and there was nothing that I could do,” Kalama says.