Four die in fresh cholera outbreak

Four people have died following a reported outbreak of cholera in Ol Donyiro Division of Isiolo District.

Two people died on Tuesday while two others died yesterday morning.

Isiolo district commissioner Waweru Kimani said a team of medics from the Medical Services and Public Health ministries had been deployed to the affected areas on Tuesday.

“I have received reports of the deaths, but the cause is subject to confirmation as we cannot authoritatively conclude that it is cholera,” he said on the phone.

He said experts were analysing water samples in the area.

A councillor in Ol Donyiro Ward, Mr Moses Leroshion, said that most of the victims had been vomiting and had diarrhoea for the past week.

The affected area is 70km west of Isiolo Town and has two dispensaries that are 45km apart. Most of the victims were reported to be from a remote village known as Kililio where local leaders said transport was a major problem.

Seeking treatment

The area councillor, Mr Peter Lekurtut, said that hundreds of sick people, among them children and elderly people, were seeking treatment at dispensaries in Kipsing. The councillor identified the dead as Mzee Lemau, 70, and a woman Letereau, 50, both from Lengwenyi village.

Others were Lekuye, 30, from Lenguruma Village and Ngurash Nakatika, 45, from Kipsing centre.

“The problem is shortage of drugs, and most of the victims are just put on intravenous drip,” Mr Lekurtut said.

He said the assistant chief of Lengura sub-location, Mr Lekitaika Rambei, was among the first to fall ill on Sunday but was treated and discharged.

The councillor said the situation worsened on Sunday, a day after supplies of relief food was distributed.

In Migori District, the public health department has issued a cholera alert.

Hygienic standards

Notices have been sent out to hoteliers and proprietors of other premises to observe high hygienic standards.

Subsequently, more supplies of cholera drugs and water treatment reagents have been ordered in South Nyanza region following fears that there could be an outbreak of the water borne disease.

District medical officer Mwita Nyamohanga said the notice had been issued after the disease was reported in neighbouring Rongo and Homa Bay districts.