The Ministry of Health has issued a multi-cholera outbreak alert after confirming 61 cases in six counties.
A letter issued on Wednesday by Director General for Health Patrick Amoth lists the counties as Kiambu with 31 patients, Nairobi (17) and Murang'a has one patient.
Kajiado and Nakuru counties have confirmed two patients each while Uasin Gishu has eight cases.
"The Ministry has confirmed a cholera outbreak in six counties following a wedding festival that was held in Kiambu county," Amoth said.
He said of the 61 cases, 13 are hospitalised, eight were discharged while 40 were treated as outpatients.
"The National Public Health Microbiology Laboratory has isolated Vibrio cholera-01-Ogawa as the responsible serotype," he added.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
It takes between 12 hours and five days for a person to show symptoms after ingesting contaminated food or water.
The disease affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if left untreated.
The Ministry has since deployed response activities including field investigations, enhanced surveillance, lab testing, case management, risk communication, community engagement and environment sanitation to help manage the outbreak.
Amoth said the Ministry was also putting all counties on high alert, pointing out that the ongoing drought may worsen the outbreak.
MoH has advised all health management officers to notify their workers to watch out for any patients presenting watery diarrhea of acute onset and conduct searches for any missed or unreported cases.
They are also required to strengthen surveillance activities up to the village level and ensure 100 per cent case-based reporting and improve laboratory capacity for specimen collection and shipment.
