From the Archives: A Resurrected Vaccine Fear Puts Kenyan Infants At Risk

Original publication date: November 17, 2014

This is the first of the “From the Archives” articles I will be publishing here. I will always include the original date of publication as the subhead, and I will always include an introductory note like this one about the fact that the article is old. I will also note why I’m choosing to republish it here. This article, though written eight years ago, remains relevant today because it shows how concerns about fertility and vaccines have persisted over the years and aren’t limited to a particular vaccine, population, or place.

Women wait to receive vaccines at the Bolemba health centre in Central African Republic as part of a joint UNICEF and WHO campaign similar to the maternal and neonatal tetanus vaccination campaign in Kenya. Photo by Pierre Holtz for UNICEF, under Creative Commons license

Another dangerous vaccine rumor is afoot that is threatening the lives of thousands of infants at risk for tetanus. It’s actually an old rumor about the tetanus toxoid vaccine resurrected in a new place, and it has the potential to derail a vital immunization campaign as it nearly did in several countries two decades ago — despite no evidence that the vaccine is unsafe.

A group of Kenyan bishops and the international Catholic medical association Matercare have claimed that the tetanus toxoid vaccine being administered to women by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF is actually a disguised “population control” intervention, a vaccine laced with the pregnancy…