Kenya
A cholera outbreak in the Kenyan capital has killed four people since May and the government has shut down a three-star hotel and a popular restaurant there to control its spread, the health minister said on Wednesday.
At least 79 people with confirmed cases of cholera were being treated in various Nairobi hospitals and authorities were setting up 10 more treatment centres to cope with the outbreak, Cleopa Mailu, the minister, told a news conference.
“We have so far closed two hotels … and we shall continue to do so if there is evidence there is risk to the public,” Mailu said, after visiting some of the patients.
The government had ordered the immediate testing of about half a million people in the food handling business in the next 21 days, he said.
Mailu said local authorities in Nairobi would be required to repair all broken sewer lines, ensure all water vendors and their water sources were certified, and ban hawking of food.
“Some of them (measures) will not be pleasant,” he said.
Containing cholera in Nairobi is critical, given it is a major hub, not just in Kenya, but in the region.
Mailu said the Kenya Red Cross and UNICEF were also helping to contain the cholera, a diarrhoeal disease transmitted by infected food and water. It can kill within hours unless treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics.
Kenya has suffered several waves of cholera since 1971, according to the World Health Organization. An outbreak in March last year killed 216 people with 13,000 hospitalised across the country.
Two ministers, Henry Rotich and Adan Mohamed, sought treatment with cholera-like symptoms after eating food during a government event in the capital last week, local newspapers reported.
Rotich’s ministry of finance said he did not wish to comment. Mohamed, who is industrialisation minister, was not available immediately.
REUTERS
01:02
Pics of the day: May 2, 2024
01:02
Pics of the day: April 30, 2024
01:42
Kenya: Ruto visits flood survivors, residents of high risk zones ordered to evacuate
00:54
Kenya: Three confirmed dead in boat capsizing, dozens still missing
Go to video
Bomb attack in northern Kenya kills 5 people near the border with Somalia
01:02
Pics of the day: April 29, 2024