Catholic Bishops in Kenya call for support against polio vaccine

Kenyan bishops call for polio vaccine boycott.

Several Roman Catholic bishops in Kenya are urging citizens to boycott a mass polio campaign in their area. The bishops want to put a halt to the polio vaccination campaign, unless the safety of the vaccine has been confirmed with scientific testing.

MUNINLUPA CITY, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Kenyan Roman Catholic Bishops area requesting for World Health Organization and UNICEF to conduct specific scientific tests on their polio vaccine. If the agencies fail to provide this, they are encouraging the Kenyan citizens to boycott the agency's mass polio vaccination campaign.

The oral vaccination hosted by WHO and UNICEF began on August 1. However, Roman Catholic Bishops in Kenya are questioning the safety of the vaccines, claiming the manufacturers failed to provide documents that provide information on whether the vaccine passed scientific examinations. They feel the government disregarded the request for such tests.

The concern of these bishops were brought by a recent unrelated incident, where about 30 children who received anti-malaria drug injections in a dispensary in Kenya became paralyzed. The drug injected in these children is believed to be quinine for advanced cases and =contained the pain drug paracetamol. Paracetamo is a known acetaminophen.

The Kenyan government and the Ministry of Health defended the anti-malaria vaccine in a statement issued late July.

"Any attempts aimed at mobilizing the public against taking their children for vaccination is a serious violation of the right of children to health and survival," said Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of Kenya's Medical Services, in the statement. "The ministry of health once again reassures the public of the safety of all vaccines used in Kenya. I therefore appeal to all stakeholders, especially the leadership of the Catholic Church, to continue supporting" the immunization campaign in Kenya.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It can cause irreversible paralysis in hours and mainly affects children under the age of 5, as reported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. There is no cure for polio. Prevention is the only way to put a halt to the disease before it starts.

"We are not in conflict with the Ministry of Health, but we have an apostolic and moral duty to ensure Kenyans are getting safe vaccines," Bishop Philip Anyolo, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops chair, statement to journalists at a news conference in Nairobi.

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