Government fights yellow fever attack in 12 NEP counties

The government is fighting the outbreak of yellow fever in at least 12 counties in northern Kenya.

Ministry of Health says 11 people have so far died while at least 90 suspected cases have been reported over the last two months.

Dr Emmanuel Okunga, the head of the division of disease surveillance and response, says the high-risk counties are Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Garissa, Tana River, Meru, West Pokot and Mandera, Turkana, Wajir and Baringo.

Okunga said the country, which has not experienced an outbreak of yellow fever since the 1990s, detected the first case around January in Merti, Isiolo, which has been hardest hit, and since then, more than 90 cases have been identified presenting with symptoms of yellow eyes, yellow urine, severe bleeding through the nose, mouth and any other opening, and failure of body organs such as kidneys, lungs and liver.

He says although most infected individuals may not exhibit any symptom, those lucky enough to manifest them will experience headache, fever, jaundice, muscles and joint pains. 

Yellow fever is described by medics as an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Mosquitoes mostly draw the infection from primates.

“The hardest hit sub county is Merti in Isiolo where herders congregate and interact with primates, particularly baboons along the Ewaso Ngiro basin. The disease is usually transmitted by mosquitoes from baboons to human beings,” says Dr Okunga.

Human transmission

The disease is also transmitted from humans to humans via the mosquito, which sucks up the virus and then hands it on when it bites someone for a blood meal.

Okunga assures that the risk of further spread was low as the outbreak was in a sparsely populated region.

“Because of the demographics of Isiolo, in terms of the number of people and how people are widely spread apart, it makes it a little easy to control,” he states.

Okunga says that they had to move fast because any delay would have likely seen the disease spreading to other counties and thereby leading to Kenyans travelling to other countries being subjected to production of yellow vaccination certificates as a requirement for entry.

To contain the situation, Dr Okunga told the People Daily, the Ministry has dispatched a team to spray, undertake epidemiological investigations and to identify the affected individuals wherever they are and when they got infected.

The government has also requested for yellow fever vaccines from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in order to heighten vaccination in the 12 affected counties.

WHO advises that yellow fever is prevented by an extremely effective vaccine, which is safe and affordable. A single dose of yellow fever is sufficient to grant sustained immunity and life-long protection against the disease.

A booster dose of the vaccine, WHO says, is rarely ever needed since the vaccine provides effective immunity within 10 days for 80-100 percent of people vaccinated and within 30 days for more than 99 percent of people vaccinated. 

Other than spraying and epidemiological investigations, the Ministry is also engaging local communities on how to differentiate yellow fever from other related diseases in order to combat and prevent it.

“A team from WHO is already in the country to assess the situation and offer their expertise. We are also working with county governments and several government agencies to contain the situation,” said Okunga who also assured that the Ministry has effectively managed the outbreak.