Kenyan health officials are on high alert after news of a suspected case of Ebola in western Kenya.
A woman who traveled from Malaba, a town in Busia County, close to the Kenya-Uganda border is reported to be exhibiting suspected symptoms of the disease.
Those symptoms included the haemorrhagic fever. She is now in an isolation ward at Kericho County Referral Hospital.
On Monday County officials revealed that the said woman travelled to the Kenya and Uganda border to see her spouse.
The woman was initially been treated for malaria in a smaller hospital called Siloam Hospital. But when her condition got worse she was transferred to the Kericho County Hospital.
Ms Margaret Okirio, the administrator at Siloam Hospital is quoted by local media as saying that “A female patient presented at our facility today with complaints of headache, hotness of the body, puffy face, some diarrhoea, and nausea of acute onset.”
In a statement the county government said “The county disease surveillance team immediately took over the matter and took all the necessary precautions to ensure that there was minimal contact between the patient and other persons at the hospital including the staff and the other hospital users.”
The statement added that “The county Department of Health Services is monitoring this potential case very closely and is working with the National Government to ensure that all essential procedures are followed to protect public health and safety.”
Health CS Sicily Kariuki’s statement on the suspected Ebola case
“The patient does not meet the case definition of Ebola however, precautionary measures have been put in place including isolation of the patient.” pic.twitter.com/cQ2YY2pq2M
— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) June 17, 2019
Blood samples from the patient have now been sent to the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) in Nairobi for further analysis.
“The preliminary test results are expected to be ready within the next 12 to 24 hours,” the statement read in part adding that “Kindly note that no visits will be allowed into the isolation room.”
Outbreak in Uganda
The outbreak from the Democratic Republic of Congo has already spread to Uganda with deaths recorded so far.
Uganda officials have suspended mass gatherings in the Kasese district where cases of the deadly Ebola virus have been recorded.
The country had earlier said it was on alert for a potential outbreak from DR Congo. It has been vaccinating it’s citizens against the virus.
In DR Congo over one thousand people have died from the disease which is fast spreading.
International public health experts have consistently urged the World Health Organization to declare an Ebola emergency in the Congo.
But the World Health Organization is refusing to declare the outbreak a global threat. It says the crisis is “very much an emergency” but only in the region.
The current outbreak is the second worst worldwide since West Africa’s Ebola outbreak between 2014-16.
There have been over 2,084 cases and 1,405 deaths since the outbreak was declared in August last year.
Ebola is often fatal and causes vomiting, diarrhoea, internal and external breeding. It also impairs kidney and liver functions.
Source: Africafeeds.com
