ELDORET SEPTEMBER 11, 2015(CISA) – The Catholic Church has raised concerns over a vaccination that allegedly killed two babies in Elgeyo Marakwet County, calling for a public announcement of their postmortem results.
“The church has more often than not raised concerns over vaccination administration in the country but the national government has ignored our input,” Bishop Cornelus Korir of the Catholic diocese of Eldoret said during a press briefing September 10.
“The government seems to be lacking machines to test the drugs. And if the equipment is available they need to explain why they haven’t been testing all vaccines coming from the World Health Organization before administering to our children,” The Standard Newspaper quoted Bishop Korir as saying.
The bishop said that questionable vaccines must be tested and results given to the public to assure people of vaccination safety.
“Government ignorance is a concern because we have lost two innocent babies in Kerio Valley due to vaccine- related complications,” noted the prelate.
He cautioned the leadership to take people’s health seriously by changing their attitude and considering citizens and other experts input in such critical issues.
“When questions are raised they need to be addressed. How will mothers be assured that the vaccines are good when the government does not want to tell them? Nobody would want to take a healthy child to the clinic and come back with a body,” he said.
He said that the post mortem of the two babies killed need to be announced publicly so that every Kenyan can know.
“The post mortem results for the babies must be announced honestly to the public so that every Kenyan can know where the problem is. If this does not happen mothers will hesitate taking their children for immunization and the trend will predispose our children to more health risks,” Bishop Korir said.
