Mombasa County health department is planning to carry out an inspection of water bottling companies in the region, following last week’s outbreak of Hepatitis A in the county.
Mombasa County Health Executive Abdi Mohammed, said the health department will carry out the exercise as one of the key measures to ensure that the water being consumed by residents is safe.
“Due to the recent outbreak, the health department is now giving special attention to water hygiene to ensure that further spread of the disease is contained,” said Mohammed.
He added, “We are not sure how safe the bottled water that is being sold in our streets is. We want to know whether the water from these water bottling companies is safe for human consumption,” said Mr Mohammed.
Last week, Mr Mohammed issued a health alert following a new outbreak of Hepatitis A and confirmed that 21 cases had been reported in the county.
Mr Mohammed said the reported cases have come from several private hospitals within the city where the affected people have been admitted over the past few days.
The health executive attributed the outbreak of the disease to poor sanitation saying the outbreak could be linked to residents drinking contaminated water.
“We are suspecting poor hygiene and contamination of our water sources to be the leading cause of Hepatitis A,” said Mr Mohammed.