To immunise or not to? A simple vaccination guide

The decision on whether to take your child for vaccination is often made difficult by conflicting information and influences from authoritative organisations. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • There is also a great disparity in the number of vaccines a child should get. While public hospitals offer 11 vaccines as advised by the Ministry of Health, private hospitals give up to 23 “necessary” jabs.
  • The 11 vaccines recommended by the government should be given for free in all hospitals, whether public or private. “Any hospital that charges for the 11 vaccines is doing so illegally since these vaccines have already been paid for by the government.
  • As the medical professionals argue that vaccines have been a solution to a myriad of life-threatening diseases, if the latest demographic health survey is anything to go by, people seem to be slowly dropping off the vaccination wagon.

Vaccination, especially that of babies, is one of those religiously followed routines in most Kenyan families.

Important as it is, however, the decision on whether to take your child for vaccination is often made difficult by conflicting information and influences from authoritative organisations.

Recently, for instance, many were confused on whether or not to have their children vaccinated against tetanus after the Catholic church preached against the vaccine.

There is also a great disparity in the number of vaccines a child should get. While public hospitals offer 11 vaccines as advised by the Ministry of Health, private hospitals give up to 23 “necessary” jabs.

This disparity has left many parents in bewilderment, forcing some of them to quietly stop the many trips to hospital. Some say they do not see the reason their children should be administered all those vaccines, while others say the visits are too expensive as insurance companies do not cover them.

A vaccine, according to the World Health Organisation, is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease.

QUESTIONING EVERYTHING

Although WHO aims to close the immunisation gap, many feel some hospitals have turned the noble exercise into a commercial venture.

“It is not bad to give vaccines as long as they are approved by the vaccines and immunisation office,” says Dr Ephantus Maree, who heads the Kenya Aids Vaccine Initiative.

However, Dr Maree adds that the 11 vaccines recommended by the government should be given for free in all hospitals, whether public or private. “Any hospital that charges for the 11 vaccines is doing so illegally since these vaccines have already been paid for by the government,” he says.

Dr David Githanga, the head of the Kenya Paediatric Association, advises that, as long as a parent can afford the vaccine, there is no problem in having a child vaccinated against diseases whose vaccines are available.

“All these vaccines are necessary, but the cost implication is what causes the disparity between what public and private hospitals offer,” says Dr Githanga.

Out of every 1,000 children, 39 die due to diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. The figure, however, has significantly dropped from 74 in 2009.

But even as the medical professionals argue that vaccines have been a solution to a myriad of life-threatening diseases, if the latest demographic health survey is anything to go by, people seem to be slowly dropping off the vaccination wagon.

Dr Githanga attributes this to the times we live in, where “everything is questioned” and people have moved away “from thinking about the effectiveness of a vaccine to looking at its safety”.

It is advised that a child should get all the recommended doses of vaccines to be considered as fully immunised.