The Kenyan Bishops initially expressed concern in March and again in October of 2014. The neonatal tetanus vaccine, which is normally given to women of reproductive age, was being given to women in five doses, rather than the usual two or three doses. Given past abuse regarding informed consent and sterilization in Kenya (see table), the extraneous vaccinations provoked concern. The Catholic Church requested the Kenyan Ministry of Health to test the vaccines for the presence of sterilizing agent, beta HCG. After the Health Ministry declined to test the vaccines, the Catholic Church in Kenya acquired nine vials of the vaccines and tested six vials in five different Kenyan laboratories.
Three of the these vaccines returned positive for Beta HCG.[
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The Ministry of Health stated that they had separately tested the tetanus vaccine but found the vaccine to be safe.
After ensuing public outcry and confusion, Kenya’s Ministry of Health and the Catholic Church formed a joint committee in of experts in November to jointly test the vaccines. The Catholic Church resubmitted their nine vials.
The Ministry of Health did not have any samples from their earlier testing, so they acquired new samples from the field and central store with the same batch number of the other samples. The Ministry of Health submitted 50 such vials.
A private Kenyan laboratory, AgriQ Kenya, tested the 59 samples (50 from the Ministry of Health, and 9 from the Catholic Church) with a method called High Performance Liquid Chromatography. High Performance Liquid Chromatography separates components of a given mixture using a pressurized liquid solvent and is commonly used to test hormones, poisons, and pesticides. Of the 59 samples tested, 56 returned clean; the same 3 vials which had tested positive for Beta HCG previously, returned positive again.
Although the presence of Beta HCG in the three vials is now undisputed, officials on both sides are concerned about how the Beta HCG made its way into neonatal tetanus vaccines.
Kenyan Bishops not Satisfied with Government Response to Vaccine Controversy. | PRI