Kisumu establishes quarantine unit despite heightened vigilance against Ebola »News from the capital

By OJWANG JOE,

KISUMU, Kenya, June 17 – An isolation hospital was set up at the Teaching and Referral Hospital Kisumu Jaramogi Odinga Odinga as a result of a suspicious case of Ebola infection in the neighboring county of Kericho.

A patient in transit from Malaba was quarantined at the Kericho County Referral Hospital after developing symptoms that, according to health authorities, could be linked to Ebola, a highly fatal disease that left two victims dead. in Uganda last week.

Nerry Achar, a member of the Kisumu County Interim Executive Committee for Health, said Monday that the isolation service was ready for any eventuality.

Achar said that a team of doctors is also waiting to take care of any cases that could be reported.

He said his office was in contact with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Kisumu as part of the measures put in place to contain any outbreak.

Achar told residents not to panic and report any cases where they would notice symptoms of Ebola, including excessive sweating.

Confirming the isolation of a patient in Kericho, Timothy Kemei, head of communication in the county, issued Monday in a statement to press rooms a statement indicating that samples of said patient had been brought to KEMRI for badysis and the results had to be reported within 24 hours.

The County badured that all necessary precautionary measures had been taken to prevent an outbreak.

Kemei, however, pointed out that the quarantine procedure was implemented as a precautionary measure and that the symptoms presented by the patient could also be related to a disease other than Ebola.

Kenyan health authorities were put on alert last week since the news of an epidemic in neighboring Uganda, where two people died as a result of the disease.

Patients who died in Uganda reportedly visited a relative in the Democratic Republic of Congo who was diagnosed with Ebola.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda has confirmed that two samples have been tested positive for Ebola.

"Two more samples were sent to UVRI (Uganda Virus Research Institute) and tested positive. So we have three confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda, "said WHO in Uganda on its Twitter account, citing a presentation by Ugandan Minister of Health Ruth Achieng.

The agency began ring vaccination in Kasese District, Uganda, where 43 people suspected of contact with infected people were vaccinated.

The Ebola virus spreads by contact with the blood, body fluids or secretions of an infected person.

Since the disease was discovered in the DRC in 1976, the worst epidemic was recorded between 2014 and 2016, killing more than 11,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.