CS Mailu blames Joho for disease spread in Coast
Heaps of garbage at Mbaraki/Liwatoni area in Mombasa in December last year. CS Cleopa Mailu has blamed the filth in the city for outbreaks of diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The city is dirty with uncollected garbage, making it vulnerable to outbreaks of diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever.
Mombasa has been battling cholera, chikungunya and dengue fever for weeks.
The last chikungunya outbreak in Mombasa was in 2004.
Governor Hassan Joho’s government has been blamed for the frequent outbreaks of disease in Mombasa.
The city is dirty with uncollected garbage, making it vulnerable to outbreaks of diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever.
The county government is also not reporting disease incidents to the national government for help, according to Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu.
“The delay in administrating and being able to communicate can affect the population we want to serve. Rain, garbage and environmental condition encouraged breeding of mosquitos and transmission of disease,” Dr Mailu said.
OUTBREAKS
If a disease breaks out in Garissa, it can spread to Mombasa the following day because of the movement of people, the CS said.
Reporting disease outbreaks in a timely manner, he added, is important so that they can be prevented from spreading to other areas.
“It is not that if it is in Mombasa, it is my problem, let me deal with it...no...counties should see infectious and transmissible diseases which can affect people as serious problems of public concern,” he said.
Speaking during an interview with journalists after officially opening the parliamentary committee on Health retreat at Pride Inn Paradise Beach Resort in Mombasa, Dr Mailu said the national government has the disease surveillance unit and the emergency response unit to tackle such outbreaks.
He urged governors to notify these units whenever such outbreaks occurred.
PROTECT THE MASSES
“There are diseases which you have to notify surveillance [unit] so that resources can be unleashed on time to protect the masses. But these are lessons to learn out of experience,” he added. “When such eventualities happen, it is for us to come and support the counties. Unfortunately when these outbreaks came, Mombasa County Government had not given us information. But we have mobilised resources to help them.” He directed all county medical authorities to report communicable disease outbreaks to the national government to avert deaths.
“As a ministry and the national government we have capacity which counties don’t have. It is our hope with time to move these capacities to counties but at the moment we still need the centre to be able to support them with supplies, technical know-how and mobilise our partners such as World Health Organization and Unicef to come in and support counties,” he added.
Mombasa has been battling cholera, chikungunya and dengue fever for weeks.
A Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) probe showed Mvita, Changamwe and Kisauni sub-counties as worst affected by chikungunya.
SPRAYING
Kemri officials have been camping in Mombasa to respond to the outbreaks. The county has been conducting fogging to kill mosquitoes.
The last chikungunya outbreak in Mombasa was in 2004.
On January 8, Mombasa County bought five modern spraying equipment for Sh15 million and the units were distributed across the six sub counties namely Mvita, Likoni, Changamwe, Kisauni, Jomvu and Nyali.
Governor Joho said 32 people have so far tested positive for the chikungunya virus as the tourism industry urged him to clean up the city.
According to the Mombasa County Health chief officer Khadija Shikely, chikungunya causes very high fever, joint pains, diarrhoea, nausea and rashes but is less fatal than dengue fever. It is spread by mosquitoes.
