The Ministry of Health announced an outbreak of Cholera in the Kamukunji area in Nairobi.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe blamed the outbreak on Kenyans, saying they have failed to adhere to simple hygienic measures such as hand washing. The number of reported cases is still unclear.
“Because sanitizing is out in some cases because people are no longer wearing masks, Cholera is back, in case you didn’t know. We have a bit of cholera outbreak in Kamukunji,” Kagwe reported.
The Health CS added that he had no doubts that there would not be Cholera at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic as everyone would be washing their hands and sanitizing.
The CS said Kenya requires a paradigm shift when it comes to tackling healthcare in the country regarding infectious illnesses.
“These prevention measures and the way we tackle healthcare in our country is something that we need to change,” Kagwe said.
Despite the dark cloud upon its arrival, Covid-19 offered a silver lining in terms of creditable community behavior change where people increasingly maintained hand hygiene. As a result, incidents of killer diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, and intestinal worms in the country reduced significantly.
However, Kenyans have since dropped hygienic measures following the relaxation of the Covid-19 containment measures.
What is Cholera?
Cholera refers to acute diarrhea illness caused by infection of the intestine with vibrio cholerae bacteria. One can catch this disease if one swallows water or food contaminated with the bacteria. Moreover, Cholera is usually mild and sometimes has no symptoms, but it can also be severe and deadly.
In the early stages of Cholera, symptoms include:
- Profuse watery diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Rapid heart rate
- Loss of skin elasticity
- Dry mucous membranes
- Low blood pressure
- Thirst
- Muscle cramps
- Restlessness and Irritability.
CS Kagwe presided over the graduation of 48 Kenyan specialists in family medicine from Cuba on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. Kenya has made efforts to borrow from the Cuban healthcare system, which focuses on primary healthcare instead of secondary healthcare, with the family medicine programme being at the core.
