Residents of Gucha South Sub-county in Kisii County have been put on high alert over cholera outbreak in the region.
Bogetenga Ward MCA, Reuben Moreka has reminded the area residents that two cases of cholera outbreak have been reported in the County; one at Nduru District Hospital in Gucha South sub-county, and another at Itibo District Hospital in Kisii South sub-county.
He challenged local community members to embrace high standards of public hygiene and sanitation in their homes and eating places.
Speaking in his Ward over the weekend, Moreka said, the threat of cholera outbreak was real, since it had threatened many lives in the neighbouring Migori and Homa-Bay counties.
He warned local community members to desist from open air defecation in bushes and farms, reminding them such trends will lead to cholera outbreak due to contamination of natural water sources, especially when the feces are swept by rain surface run-offs to the water sources.
The MCA also challenged public health officers in the region to visit all homes and ensure there are either latrines or toilets to counter the outbreak.
“I am challenging everyone in this Ward to ensure they have toilets or pit latrines to discourage the outdated culture of people openly defecating in bushes or maize farms, to avert the threat of cholera outbreak in the area,” stated Moreka
The MCA's sentiments were echoed by a Seventh Day Adventist Church, Pastor Naftal Ogora, who challenged all health and temperance departmental heads in the County to rise up to the occasion and take their services to the local communities to educate them on the need to observe good public hygiene and sanitation in their homes to avert cholera outbreak in the region.
Pastor Ogora said, the SDA church's position is that everybody should embrace good hygiene and sanitation, to avert spread of water-borne and contaminated food-related diseases among members of the society.
“As Christians, we have a moral duty of embracing good hygiene and sanitation in our lives, starting from water and food that we consume in our homes, to protect our people from falling victims of dirty water and food-borne diseases,” observed Ogora
He challenged men from the area to give construction of pit latrines and toilets a first priority, reminding them standards of hygiene and sanitation in any homestead was measured on the standard of having a pit latrine or toilet.