Tetanus vaccine controversy rages as ministry fails to receive results

The controversy surrounding the tetanus vaccine targeting women deepened with the Catholic Church dismissing a statement by the Ministry of Health that the results of a joint test would be out by Friday.

Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri on Thursday told the Nation the results would be submitted to his office by Friday.

But Catholic Doctors Association chairman  Stephen Karanja said he had no information on whether the results had been released.

“However, I don’t think that was even possible anyway because by Thursday,  testing had not started,” Dr Karanja told the Saturday Nation.

“We submitted the samples on Wednesday and from a technical view, no laboratory would release results within such a short time as claimed by Dr Muraguri.” 

Dr Karanja said no laboratory was willing to conduct the tests because none had been paid.

“I would only want to give accurate information. As we speak, I have no information about the test results,” he added.

JOINT TESTS

The joint test followed claims by the Catholic Church that the vaccine was meant to make women infertile.

Dr Muraguri said the results were to be submitted to his office on Thursday and officially announced next week at a joint press conference.

“We expect that the experts are through with the testing and we will have results of the tested vaccine tomorrow (Friday), after which we will agree on when we will formally announce the findings,” he said.

The ministry and the church have been engage in push and pull over the vaccine Dr Muraguri maintains is safe.

The church went ahead to advise Kenyans not to take the jab, asserting that it was a family planning idea.