Nakuru County has launched an exercise to fight bedbugs and sand fly which have invaded homes, causing sleepless nights for residents.
The county has partnered with the private sector to eliminate, and curb the spread of bedbugs in the affected sub-counties.
Nakuru Public Health Officer Dr Elizabeth Kiptoo said they have launched an exercise to fumigate areas which have been infested by the insects.
Speaking during a training exercise for public health officers on effective ways of ending the menace, Kiptoo said they will seek to fumigate households in Nakuru Town East, Nakuru Town West and Gilgil sub-counties.
She said they have spent Sh700,000 to spray more than 800 houses in Nakuru Town East, adding that the ongoing exercise targets 2,000 households in the two sub-counties.
Kiptoo said Gilgil has been invaded by sand fly which cause skin disease called protozoan.
“The disease manifests itself in a lesion or a small wound on the skin but it keeps on widening with the infected person feeling itchy and scratching continuously. This disease starts as a pimple with some rashes and after about two weeks the pimple bursts and a wound starts and it keeps on widening as the days go by leaving nasty features on the skin,” Dr Kiptoo said as quoted by Standard.
Public Health Chief Officer Dr Samuel King’ori said they have mapped areas infested by the sand fly in Gilgil, and have set up trapping nets to eliminate them.