District Health officials in Namayingo District have confirmed an outbreak of Cholera after three individuals were admitted with similar symptoms.
Three patients admitted at Bukana Health Center III in Bukana Subcounty were tested and results returned positive. Authorities have since registered 60 close contacts of the victims, including 13 children and 47 adults.
They are currently under surveillance by health workers who continue to monitor their condition from home .
The District Health Officer, Mathias Mageni says samples were taken from three female residents of Secho village, Sigulu Island Sub County, moments after they were hospitalized with symptoms similar to the disease. The index case is said to have visited cholera endemic areas in Western Kenya 10 days before the onset of the disease in the community.
He states that the patients were immediately isolated by health workers at Bukana Health Center III after they presented with all vomiting, headaches and fevers.
Mangeni has called on government to provide the health center with the necessary PPE’s and equipment required to manage the disease. He explains that they are in dire need of sodium hypochlorite (Jik), liquid soap, and portable handwashing facilities, disposable aprons, gumboots, chlorine-based formulations.
Other requirements include: cholera rapid diagnostic test kits, cannulas, adhesive plasters, gloves, antibiotics, oral rehydration salts for treating patients.
The Deputy Namayingo Resident District Commissioner, Solomon Baleke, says they have organized a dialogue meeting between the district’s local government leaders and other development partners to discuss means of facilitating Village Health Team-VHTs with lunch and transport allowances.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholerae bacteria. People can get sick when they swallow food or water contaminated with cholera bacteria. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe and life-threatening.