• Drugs not the first-line of management to a cholera case, but the restoration of fluids.
• At least 1,866 cases have been reported this year, 91 of which were confirmed.
Image: FILE
Researchers have said there is no outbreak of drug-resistant cholera in Kenya.
Kenya Medical Research Institute said the country has drugs to treat even the most stubborn of cholera strains reported locally.
“While it is true that a number of disease-causing bacterial pathogens are increasingly becoming resistant to commonly prescribed antibiotics, there still exists a number of drugs that are effective in the market,” Kemri’s director of the Centre for Microbiology Research Dr Willy Sang said.
He said drugs are not the first line of management to a cholera case, but the restoration of fluids or oral rehydration salts are the most effective methods.
He was responding to social media claims of an outbreak of a drug-resistant cholera strain.
“The public should therefore not panic about the reported ‘new strain’ of cholera, but should instead exercise higher standards of personal hygiene including hand washing, drinking only boiled or treated water, and eating properly cooked foods among other known preventive measures,” Sang said.
At least 1,866 cases of cholera have been reported in Kenya this year, 91 of which were confirmed, according to the Ministry of Health.
Health CS Sicily Kariuki recently said since January, cholera outbreaks have been reported in Narok, Kajiado, Nairobi, Garissa, Machakos and Mandera counties. The outbreak has, however, been successfully contained in Narok, she told the National Assembly Health committee last week.
“A few isolated new cases are being reported in the remaining five counties. However, there have been no reported cholera cases in Murang’a,” Kariuki said.
She said cholera is a highly infectious disease, which compelled the ministry to put in place several measures to contain the situation.
It has supplied hospital beds, water treatment chemicals, oral rehydration salts, antibiotics, IV fluids, water quality test-kits, personal and spray pumps to the affected counties.
“The counties with an active transmission have set up cholera treatment centres to support timely treatment and minimise further spread,” Kariuki said.
Nairobi, for instance, has set up centres at Riruta Health Centre, Mbagathi, Kenyatta and Mama Lucy hospitals.
The disease, which is spread by ingesting faecal matter, causes acute watery diarrhoea and can kill within hours if not treated.
At least four people died and dozens more were treated when another outbreak hit the city in 2017, causing authorities to shut down some restaurants.
The ministry, in collaboration with county health departments, is conducting contact tracing in households and workplaces, continuous line listing of cases and screening using rapid diagnostic test kits to curtail the outbreak.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)