News Story

Children to benefit from a Rota virus Vaccination Campaign

The LDS Church is a partner in vaccination efforts in Kenya.

According to World Health Organization, nearly every child in the world is infected with Rotavirus at least once. Rotavirus is a diarrheal infection that is a leading infant killer with estimates revealing nearly 750,000 global deaths reported annually with most of these coming from the Third World. Even though a vaccine exists for the virus, it is often not affordable to many. Governments in Africa together with multilateral partners have been working to find solutions to this problem. It was thus a milestone for Kenya on 16th July 2014, when the vaccine started being available to the Kenyan children at no charge.

Rotavirus is a diarrheal infection that is a leading infant killer with estimates revealing nearly 750,000 global deaths reported annually with most of these coming from the Third World. 

Kenya’s First Lady, Mrs Margaret Kenyatta, said at the launch held in Machakos County, "The launch of a vaccine against Rotavirus in public health facilities will benefit 1.4 million children and is a major milestone towards realization of our vision of zero deaths among children of Kenya."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a partner in this effort and continues to support the work of government to ensure that one child not vaccinated against preventable diseases is one too many. This year alone, the Church has worked with other organizations and government to conduct three immunizations campaign against Polio in Kenya and is working with the Government of Tanzania to conduct a Measles vaccination campaign later in the year. In Kenya the three Polio vaccination campaigns have been able to capture over 8 million children according to Dr. Ian Njeru of Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Response Unit (DSORU) at the Ministry of Health.

The Rotavirus vaccination campaign will be a routine one and children can access it at any public health facility all year round. The launch was also attended by Kenya's Cabinet Secretary of Health (Minister), James Macharia, and Machakos County Governor, H.E Alfred Mutua, among others. Elder and Sister Shakespeare, LDS Charities Country Directors, and President Gordon Ondiek, an Assistant to the Kenya Nairobi Stake President were also present and shared a dais with government and other partner officials.

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