A five days’ polio campaign that ended on Wednesday April 16th this week in Garissa County has been described as “a huge success” by health officials.

Briefing the press in his office on Friday, Garissa County Health Promotion Coordinator Salan Gudle said the campaign whose initial target was 317,000 has so far seen over 350,000 children under five get the jab.

Until about five years ago, Kenya had been declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, an upsurge refugees arriving from Kenya’s eastern neighbours, Somalia an Ethiopia, reintroduced the diseases in the Daadab Refugee Camp, which placed the whole of East Africa on high alert.

Somalia and Ethiopia have one of the highest polio incidence in the world.

Gudle thanked the media, religious leaders, community elders and chiefs for playing a pivotal role in the exercise by mobilising the communities and creating the awareness among the members of the public.

“I would like to thank and celebrate each and every one who participated in this noble exercise. It was a huge success. Special praise goes to the health team that worked tireless to achieve these numbers,” Gudle said.

“Most of our people are pastoralists by nature and tend to move from one place in search of water and pasture. The recent rains resulted in such migration but our teams were able to follow them to where they had moved to and settled,” he added.

He said that some of the teams had to cross over to neighbouring Somalia with the help from the health teams inside Somalia.

Garissa county polio champion Abdi Guhad said they had to network and convince the community members some who were reluctant to have their children vaccinated.

“We had to move from one homestead to another to convince parents and caregivers who had wrong perception about the polio vaccine. We are celebrating because our children are now polio free,” Guhad said.

Being a victim of polio disease, Guhad said that that she would never wish to see another child grow up on a wheelchair because he or she missed the important dose.

“This is what pushed me to actively participate in the exercise. As long as I am approached and given the chance to support future polio campaign, I am readily available,” she said

Polio is a highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis and even death. While there is no cure, vaccination is the most effective way to prevent it, offering lifelong protection.

The drive followed new polio cases reported along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The campaign was concurrently carried out in Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, and neighbouring regions in Ethiopia and Somalia.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Jacob Songok