Two new cases of polio have been detected in the latest surveillance by the government.

In early August, health personnel on surveillance in Garissa detected six polio cases, prompting the Ministry of Health to conduct a round of vaccination targeting four counties.

Yesterday, Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary Muriuki pointed out that detection of the new cases indicates that transmission of the virus is still active in Garissa, especially within refugee camps.

“Since our last meeting, our surveillance system has detected an additional two polio cases, bringing the total number to eight,” said the PS.

Muriuki said this particular round, which targets 3.1 million children under the age of five, will move the age bracket to under 15 years after one of the two cases detected was a seven-year old.

“The upcoming round will target 10 high risk counties namely; Mandera, Wajir, Tana River, Lamu, Kitui, Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado, Nairobi and Garissa,” the PS noted.

Campaign is scheduled to take place from tomorrow, October 7 to 11 targeting an actual 3,119,158 children under 15 years of age in all the targeted sub-counties.

She demystified the long held perception that polio only affected children under five years of age. However, recently this was confirmed not to be the case as there was a more than five years old child.

“For a long time, it has been assumed that polio largely affects children under five years of age. However, the confirmation of the virus in a seven-year-old child re-affirms that polio is a threat to all persons irrespective of age in areas where population immunity is compromised,” Muriuki said during a media breakfast in Nairobi.

In the first round of the campaign, the ministry in collaboration with county governments and partners successfully vaccinated 1,960,748 children under five years out of a target of 1,879,402 children. This took place in Kiambu; Kajiado, Garissa and Nairobi.