Medical personnel attend to Cholera patients at KNH. There is an outbreak of diarrhoea disease in Isiolo. Photo/voanews.com
There is a looming health crisis along Ewaso Ng’iro River settlements in Isiolo County following an outbreak of diarrhoea disease.
County Public Health officer Guracha Sarite said more than 500 people living along Ewaso Ng’iro River settlements have been affected by a diarrhoeal disease outbreak in the last two months.
Mr Sarite said the worst affected are women and children under five years of age who have been drinking contaminated water in several areas of Merti, Garbatulla and Oldonyiro since September.
Mr Sarite said a team of public health officers established that the community water storage tanks have not been cleaned for more than two years in all the centres they visited.
What might also have led to water contamination is flooding in areas where open defecation is practised by the communities which led to water sources being contaminated.
Rolling of water jerricans on the contaminated surface is also believed to have contributed to the outbreak, he added.
“There is no laboratory diagnosis since none of the facilities has functional laboratory hence suggestive clinical perspective were dysentery, amoebiasis and malnutrition especially among children under five years,” said Mr Sarite.
A team of public health officers, disease surveillance coordinator and laboratory technicians who visited the affected areas found out that Merti had 300 cases while Garbatulla and Oldonyiro recorded 150 cases.
The team recommended urgent disinfection or cleaning of community water storage tanks, more supply of water disinfectants to affected households and behavioural change by the community.