Kenya - Cholera: House committee to summon Ministers | 11 new districts in Kenya report Cholera | NY Times-Cholera Epidemic Infects Thousands in Kenya | How climate change impacts on Uganda
Campbell, Dan
Cholera: House committee to summon
Ministers
Mon, Dec 07, 2009
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=61373
The Parliamentary Committee on Health will summon ministers
Beth Mugo, Anyang Nyong'o and Charity Ngilu over rampant cholera outbreaks in
parts of the country.
So far more than 110 people have died of cholera
with more than 50 succumbing to the disease in November only.
The
committee's chairman Dr Robert Monda said the ministers would be summoned next
week to explain how the three ministries are handling the cholera epidemic
that was getting worse by the day.
Two ministers who toured East Pokot
district to assess the situation are now calling for emergency help and
immediate evacuation of the victims to avert more
deaths.
Agriculture minister William Ruto, Information minister
Samuel Poghisio and Assistant minister Asman kamama noted the situation might
get worse especially due to lack of enough medical personnel in the
area.
They further urged the government to send helicopters in the area
to help in the emergency evacuation of seriously ill patients.
The
disease has claimed 22 lives in East Pokot while several others are admitted to
Kapedo sub-district hospital.
The Kenya Red Cross Society last week
discovered seven bodies in Kapnyung'uny area along river Suguta in Suguta
Valley, where the disease is suspected to have originated from.
It is
believed that the victims mostly women and children died on their way to Kapedo
Health Centre, which is 40 kilometres away.
11 new districts in Kenya report Cholera
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 4 - At least 11 districts have reported new
cholera cases in the last one week with the confirmed cases now standing at 159,
according to statistics by the Ministry of Public Health.
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/11-new-districts-in-Kenya-report-Cholera-6718.html
The Director of Public Health Dr Shahnaaz Shariff said on
Friday that the affected districts were in Rift Valley, Central, Coast and
Nairobi provinces.
“The situation is under control in other areas which
were previously affected by cholera like in Nyanza and Laisamis. We have
not had any other cases and certain parts of Nairobi like Kasarani where Kamiti
prison is we have not had new cases for the last one week,” he said.
In
an interview with Capital News, Dr Shariff said Turkana had the highest number
of confirmed cholera cases in the last one week totaling 54.
“Our big
problem is actually Turkana because there we have had cases since September but
we have managed to contain it in other places,” he said.
He however said
there were over 4,700 cases of acute watery diarrhoea in the last one month and
131 deaths.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cholera is
an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated
with a bacterium known as Vibrio Cholerae.
It has a short incubation
period of less than one day to five days after which it causes profuse painless,
watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if
treatment is not promptly given.
Vomiting also occurs in most
patients.
Cholera can be prevented through provision of adequate safe
drinking water, proper personal hygiene, food hygiene and hygienic disposal of
human excreta.
“We have been advocating for hand washing with soap and
water as one of the most efficient ways of preventing cholera. The other one is
drinking clean, safe water and eating in safe places. The most unsafe place to
eat would be outside in the open and we are discouraging food hawking,” Dr
Shariff said.
Raw or undercooked seafood may also be a source of
infection in areas where cholera is prevalent and sanitation is poor. Vegetables
and fruits that have been washed with water contaminated by sewage may also
transmit the infection.
WHO further says that Cholera outbreaks can occur
sporadically in any part of the world where water supplies, sanitation, food
safety and hygiene practices are inadequate.
Overcrowded communities with
poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water supplies are most frequently
affected.
“An outbreak occurs in a particular area then if that area is
free of cases for 21 days the outbreak is over so what has been happening is
that it has been occurring in different places,” Dr Shariff said.
The WHO
recommends the use of oral rehydration salts which can also be homemade using
half a teaspoon of salt and six level teaspoons of sugar dissolved in one litre
of safe water, to reduce deaths from cholera.
In its website, the
International health body says lightly salted rice water or plain water can also
be given to a cholera patient before seeking medical attention.
This
could avert up to 80 percent of deaths from cholera.
The New York Times - Cholera Epidemic Infects Thousands in Kenya
December 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/world/africa/05kenya.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
NAIROBI, Kenya — A cholera <http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/cholera/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier> epidemic is sweeping across Kenya <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/kenya/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> , with 4,700 cases reported in the past month and 119 deaths in what Kenyan officials are calling “one of the worst outbreaks in a decade.”
The most stricken areas are the arid swaths of northern Kenya, which were hit this year by a devastating drought <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/africa/08kenya.html> . The scant rains have meant that many people are surviving off dirty, germ-infested water, which is how cholera spreads <http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/cholera_gi.html> .
The drought has also left thousands of people malnourished and weak, making them vulnerable to infectious diseases <http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/travelers-guide-to-avoiding-infectious-diseases/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier> . Because of the remoteness of many of the infected areas, aid workers say they believe that the officially reported numbers of cases and deaths may vastly understate the severity of the outbreak.
“People are really sick, and coming down from the hills, and we really don’t know how bad this is yet,” Nicholas Wasunna, a humanitarian adviser for the aid group World Vision <http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/sponsor/sponsor-kenya> , said Friday.
Cholera, called kipindupindu in Kiswahili, is an acute diarrheal illness caused by a bacterial infection in the intestine. People exposed to cholera germs can get sick within hours and die within a day if the infection is not treated. Health officials say it spreads so easily that a person can get it simply by taking a sip from a cup used by an infected person.
The best treatment is rehydration salts to restore fluids to the body. The best prevention is for people to wash their hands a lot. One reason that droughts exacerbate the problem is that there is less water to wash with.
Health workers say that cholera is spreading rapidly in northern Kenya in part because many people there are nomadic. Animals that have recently died from hunger and thirst have also become fly-infested breeding grounds for other killer germs.
“These are the perfect conditions for cholera,” said Maina Kingori, a program officer at World Vision.
The Kenyan Public Health Ministry issued a cholera alert <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDSfK_fI82o&videos=f9hXsv58NYI> last week. The ministry says it urgently needs $7.5 million for medicine and testing kits. Still, many people have complained that the government has responded too slowly.
“It is a real shame that in this age of the fiber-optic cable, Kenyans should be dying of cholera,” said a blistering editorial <http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/-/440804/440804/-/qmuxi8z/-/index.html> on Friday in a leading Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation. “One would think that diseases that spread because of unsanitary conditions belonged to a bygone period.”
How climate change impacts on
Uganda
6 December,
2009
UGANDA is already
experiencing the negative effects of climate change and the situation is
expected to worsen as impending calamities will affect agriculture,
infrastructure and health, the 2009 State of Uganda Population Report
predicts.
The report, released last month, lists the risk posed by
climate change as reduced agricultural productivity, leading to increased food
prices and food insecurity, which in turn will cause malnutrition. Already, the
report says, 40% of deaths among children are due to malnutrition.
Uganda
is also likely to experience changes in the frequency and severity of climate
events, such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms, the report
notes.
This will affect the country’s development efforts and cause
shifts in the spread of diseases like typhoid, dysentery and malaria. It will
also lead to soil erosion, land degradation and damage the
infrastructure.
“This situation compromises the country’s ability to meet
its own development objectives and the Millennium Development Goals,” the report
says.
Northern and eastern Uganda can expect both droughts and floods.
The report refers to the 2007 floods, following the heaviest rainfall in 35
years, which destroyed crops and affected thousands of people.
The Mount
Elgon region in particular will experience landslides and floods, the report
predicts.
The Rwenzori region in western Uganda will see reduced rainy
seasons, which will affect crops like beans. In addition, the ice caps on the
Rwenzori Mountains have receded by 40% in the last half century, which will
reduce the water flows into River Semliki.
Karamoja is already one of the
hardest hit areas, according to the report. The region experienced seven
droughts between 1991 and 2000.
As the area becomes drier, there will be
increased food in security, animal losses and conflict over water. The report
also foresees outbreaks of tick-borne diseases, dust storms which will cause
chest and eye infections and the expansion of the tsetse fly
belt.
Southwestern Uganda, according to the report, is the fastest
warming region in Uganda at 0.30C per decade. The area is expected to experience
more frequent droughts and will become unsuitable for coffee and dairy
production when temperatures rise by two degrees Celsius.
Climate change
will also lead to the spread of malaria to traditionally cooler areas like
Kisoro, Kabale and Mount Elgon where people have a low natural immunity to the
disease.
Anemia resulting from malaria will increasingly affect women’s
health and become responsible for maternal mortality.
Kampala will see
more rains, with increased risk of floods and drainage problems, causing
outbreaks of cholera and diarrhea.
The water levels of Lake Victoria will
continue to go down, according to the report, leading to a reduction in power
generation and affecting fish breeding grounds.
This has already led to a
reduction in fish catch, especially for fish which breed in shallow areas and
use shoreline wetlands as refuge from predators, according to the
report.
Dan Campbell, Web
Manager
Environmental Health at USAID
1611 North Kent St., Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22209
Ph:
703-247-8722
Email: dcam...@usaid.gov
Environmental Health at USAID: http://www.ehproject.org
Indoor Air Pollution Updates: http://iapnews.wordpress.com
Sanitation Updates: http://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com
Urban Health Updates: http://urbanhealthupdates.wordpress.com
Cholera Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/cholera-control
Household Water Treatment Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/household-water-treatment