Health CS, Cleophas Mailu has urged the county government of Mandera to enact stringent laws that minimise the spread of mosquito breeding grounds and address sanitation issues.
In a KBC bulletin on Sunday, the Health CS pointed out that the government is working on a plan to avert the outbreak of Cholera and Chikungunya diseases in Mandera County in the next two weeks. He also disclosed that the ministry has set out sufficient medics and scaled up the number of experts including clinical officers and entomologists to enhance treatment services offered to patients.
The ministry, in collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross Society, Amref, WHO and Unicef have put in place necessary mechanisms including the establishment of isolated wards to offer treatment to patients and shield them from future infections.
Chikungunya is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito and Mailu revealed in a meeting on Monday that a team of eight entomological technicians would spearhead efforts to contain it by spraying their breeding sites with insecticides, providing insect repellents and ensuring that hospitalised patients slept under treated mosquito nets.
On the other hand, according to the Ministry of Health, Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease which can kill within hours if left untreated. It is caused by ingestion of food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae. The short incubation period of two hours to five days is one factor that triggers the potentially explosive pattern of outbreaks.