Kenya is battling a cholera outbreak with 11,872 cases and 196 deaths reported prompting the government to roll out emergency oral cholera vaccination (OCV) across eight counties.
According to Dr Sultan Matendechero, Deputy Director General, ministry of health, the government saw an urgent need for action considering that case fatality rate of the cholera outbreaks stands at 1.7 percent underscoring severity of the situation coupled with the caution of expected Elnino rains between the coming months September and October which may escalate the situation.
Matendechero said that, “the vaccinations will be conducted from August 3rd to 12th, 2023 and intends to reach 1.7 million people, children over the age of one and adults in the selected counties.”
The eight counties that OCV will be rolled out include Nairobi-Embakasi central and Kamukunji sub-counties, Wajir-north Wajir, Mandera-Mandera East, Machakos-institutions and special school, Homa-Suba south Bay, Marsabit-Moyale, Garissa-Persons arriving at the refugee camp and Kajiado-Kajiado east with Mandera, Nairobi and Wajir still reporting cases.
The program targets people over the age of one in eight counties with the inclusion of Machakos County prison and Special school as well as the Dadaab refugee camp.
According to Dr Emmanuel Okunga, Medical Epidemiologist at Ministry of Health-Kenya, Cholera is contracted from a bacterium vibrio Cholerae that is generally transmitted through contaminated food or water. Once transmitted the incubation period may be between few hours to five days.
He added that most cases, over 75 percent are asymptomatic and affected persons are infectious during the acute stage of the disease up to days after recovery with deaths occurring within hours after infection if not treated properly.
“Kenya continues to report high burden of cholera with people dying from the disease,” Dr Okunga said adding that, “Various parts of the country has been mapped out as high risk of cholera.”
While speaking on the efficacy and safety of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV), Dr Marybeth C. Maritim representing Kenya National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (KENITAG) said that, cholera is vaccine preventable with (OCV) which is very safe having been successfully used in other countries over 10 years as an additional tool implemented alongside other intervention measures, importantly water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
“The vaccine will be given free of charge, it is administered orally, it is safe and the same OCV vaccine type given to all age group both adults and children over the age of one year,”
The vaccination exercise is made possible through collaborative work between the Ministry of Health and Counties, WHO, UNICEF, IMO and other partners.
Dr Umar Abba, UNICEF health specialists lauded government of Kenya and partners for doing a commendable work by responding swiftly to curtail the spread of cholera outbreaks up from 26 counties in February to 3 counties presently.The country needs to have a long-time plan to ensure that such incidents don’t happen again, he added.
“UNICEF shipped 1.5 million OCV doses to Kenya, medicines and diagnostic kits for cholera and working very hard on risk communication and community engagements to help in prevention, treatments and management of cases,” Umar said.
Dr Martins Livinus, World health organization (WHO) team Leader emergencies preparedness response, said that cholera is a disease of dirty hands, “Cholera moves from your hands to your mouth when you drink or eat contaminated water or food,” he added that, “it can be easy to control and treat but can turn deadly and kill infected individual in a very short period of time when not managed well, so when an outbreak occurs, a speedy response is absolutely necessary inorder to save lives.
He said that introduction of OCV is an important preventive tool and WHO and its partners are glad to collaborate with ministry of health in getting this vaccine to the prioritized counties where it is highly needed.
In February this year, Kenya health authorities launched the country’s first-ever oral cholera vaccination drive targeting 26 counties.
Community members, parents, and caregivers are highly encouraged to take advantage of this potentially life-saving opportunity and be vaccinated and ensure their children receive the vaccination.
