Cholera death toll in Nairobi slum rises to 11

Two more people died of what is suspected to be cholera in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums on Saturday, raising the death toll to 11, as hundreds more sought treatment.

A man and a woman, both aged above 30, died on Friday night after complaining of diarrhoea. The woman is reported to have died at home while the man died on his way to hospital. The man is said to have received a prescription at a local clinic.

More residents visited the Medical Missionaries of Mary Hospital on Saturday complaining of stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting. “We treated 500 people by yesterday afternoon, most of them children under five years,” said Sr Elizabeth Bundala, the hospital’s project coordinator.

The health facility is also working with community health workers to educate slum residents to observe high levels of hygiene to prevent further spread. However, Sr Bundala dispelled fears that the situation was bound to get worse. The community had been sufficiently educated, she said.

Some 51 volunteers who have been trained by the hospital to educate the public on personal hygiene on Saturday distributed disinfectant tablets to all households in Sisal area. “We instructed them to use one tablet in every 20 litres before drinking the water,” Ms Peninah Nzioka, a volunteer, said.

A medic at the hospital says samples from the patients are currently under investigation to establish the exact cause of the outbreak. Reports indicate that hotel owners by the roadside shut their food kiosks temporarily yesterday after provincial administration officials ordered them closed down but later reopened them.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, a medical charity, and health workers from the ministry of Medical Services were in the area to treat new cases. According to Kenyatta National Hospital, only one boy from Mukuru Kwa Njenga had been admitted on Friday morning and tests were yet to establish if the disease was cholera.