More than 1000 polio viruses destroyed at Kemri

The government on Thursday destroyed more than 1,000 polio viruses that were used for research at Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) to avoid “accidental or deliberate” release to the public.

Last week, Kemri destroyed the remaining stockpiles of the wild polio virus type 2, one of the three strains of polio virus.

The viruses which were being used for the research had been stored at the institutes’ polio laboratory since 1999.

Speaking at the Kemri headquarters in Nairobi, director of medical services Jackson Kioko said that the government decided to destroy the polio viruses because the disease has not been detected in the country since 2013.

“We are following through with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations that the wild polio virus type 2 should be destroyed,” said Dr Kioko.

A similar exercise was conducted early this year in February at the Kemri headquarters in Nairobi.

The world was set to destroy materials containing the wild polio virus type2 by December last year.

However, Dr Kioko said that when the ministry conducted surveillance across the country to locate laboratories that had any remaining materials, such as polio vaccines that have the three strains of polio, they found that some laboratories had not destroyed the virus.

“We are aware that there are other laboratories that have materials containing the virus that were taken when the trivalent polio vaccine was being used,” he said, adding that they should be disposed by October this year.

Despite the destruction of the viruses, Dr Kioko insisted that polio vaccination campaigns would continue.

Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system.

The virus is transmitted from person-to-person mainly through faecal matter entering the mouth with children younger than 5 years old being more likely to contract the virus than any other group.

Although the last detected wild polio virus type2 (WPV2) was in 1999, the government says that the viruses must be destroyed to avoid it from being used in any malicious way to harm the public.

In May, security agencies foiled a planned biological attack using anthrax and arrested three suspects.

The incidence happened just one month after Interior Affairs CS Joseph Nkaissery and his Health counterpart, Dr Cleopa Mailu, visited the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) to survey the security measures of the research Centre.

The WHO acting country director Dr Nathan Bakyaita also raised of possible resurgence of polio after studies conducted in part of Nairobi (Mathare and Eastleigh) found that there was a “vaccine derived polio virus.”

“This is a stark reminder that unless these surveillance and immunity gaps are addressed, there exists a real risk of reversal of the significant gains made,” said Dr Bakyaita.