Ministries on high alert over cholera

Officials in Kenya's ministries of Health and Water were on Wednesday put on high alert as the government battled to contain the spread of cholera, which has killed 31 people and infected nearly 1,000 others.

Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation staff were deployed to affected areas to provide health education in an attempt to stop further spread of the disease.

And those at the Ministry of Water were working round the clock to ensure there was clean water at household level in all the 15 districts where the outbreak has been reported.

“We have closed eating places that do not meet minimum standards in these areas and banned hawking of food,” said the Director Public Health, Dr Shanaaz Shariff, who addressed a press conference yesterday at his Afya House office.

New bore holes

The director of Water Resources, Mr John Rao, who was present during the press conference, said officials at the ministry were busy sinking new boreholes in affected areas to ensure there was adequate water.

“We are providing water with bowsers to the people. We are also disinfecting wells and rivers with chlorine and distributing chlorine tablets to the people affected,” Mr Rao said.

Dr Shariff said the government had set up isolation units at prisons for those infected with the disease. The jails where cholera has been reported include Kisumu, Kakamega, Nakuru and Naivasha prisons.

According to Dr Shariff, two inmates had succumbed to the outbreak at Kakamega GK Prison. And an inmate died at Nakuru GK Prison on Monday, according to press reports.