Rift Valley fever kills two people in Wajir

Human beings can get Rift Valley fever from the bites of infected mosquitoes. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The disease which is mosquito-borne has been reported in Lakoley and Basir areas in Eldas sub-county.

  • Wajir County is among the 17 counties that were earlier reported to be at a risk of RVF outbreak.

  • The disease was first isolated in Kenya’s Rift Valley in 1931 and has since caused a lot of deaths of animals and humans.

Two people have died in Wajir County in a suspected Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak which has been partly blamed on the heavy rains experienced in the county in the last few weeks.

Rift Valley Fever is a a viral disease that primary affects animals but can also infect humans and eventually result to death.

The disease which is mosquito-borne has been reported in Lakoley and Basir areas in Eldas sub-county.

BLOOD SAMPLES

Dozens of livestock have also been reported to have died due to the outbreak.

Wajir chief health officer, Noor Sheikh Mohamed said that although the victims showed symptoms of RVF, they had sent samples of their blood to the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) for further tests in order to determine if indeed it is RVF.

“For now we cannot confirm if their deaths was caused by RVF but we have sent the samples of the victims’ blood to Kemri for further tests . But all signs point to RVF,” he said.

Wajir County is among the 17 counties that were earlier reported to be at a risk of RVF outbreak.

ISOLATED 1931

Other counties included Kajiado, Tana River, Mombasa, Garissa, Uasin Gishu, and Trans Nzoia, and Nairobi.

He added that they had sent a team of medical personnel to camp in the area for a week in a bid to combat the spread of the disease and prevent further deaths.

The disease was first isolated in Kenya’s Rift Valley in 1931 and has since caused a lot of deaths of animals and humans.

The outbreak of the disease prompted ward representatives to quickly pass the supplementary budget on Monday after months of house wrangles in a bid to combat the outbreak that has proven to be deadly if the necessary preventive measures are not put in place.