Malaria, diarrhoea hospitalise 60 children in Kenya floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
Malaria, diarrhoea hospitalise 60 children in Kenya floods*
NAIROBI, Nov 26 (AFP) Nov 26, 2006
At least 60 children have been admitted to the main hospital in
flood-hit northern Kenyan after an outbreak of malaria and diarrhoea,
officials said Sunday.
The children were admitted to Garissa Provincial Hospital, 300
kilometres (188 miles) northeast of the capital Nairobi, after a
reported outbreak of the diseases at camps housing tens of thousands of
people displaced by floods.
"We expect the number to increase," said Ismael Wango, a health officer
in the hospital, the biggest referral facility in the region.
Kenyan health officials have warned of possible outbreaks of waterborne
diseases in the country's flood-hit regions, where torrential rains have
killed at least 80 people and displaced around 200,000 others over
recent weeks.
Humanitarian groups have said around 300,000 people across the east
African nation need humanitarian supplies in the coming months owing to
the effects of floods.
In neighbouring Somalia, where floods have killed at least 96 people,
displaced more than 300,000 and affected around a million others, health
officials have also sounded the alarm for outbreaks of waterborne
diseases, particularly cholera, which has already been confirmed in two
areas.
In both countries the rains have destroyed farmlands, disrupted food
supplies, cut off villages and washed away roads, in Somalia
complicating the delivery of aid to the most vulnerable and impoverished
in remote areas.