A suspected case of yellow fever has been reported in Nairobi’s South C, Nairobi, a day after the Health ministry sent an alert following a man’s death. Panic is sweeping the city as fears of an out break become real.
Nairobi county health executive Bernard Muia said the man arrived via the JKIA from Luanda, Angola, the epicenter of the yellow fever outbreak. “He had signs and symptoms associated with the virus. Blood samples have been taken… We are awaiting results from the lab,” Muia said.
He said the patient is being monitored by the national and country governments’ disease surveillance team. But in his address to the press on Thursday, Muia allayed fears the virus is getting out of hand.
Chief officer Samson Ochola said the county has vaccinated 3,800 people, mainly travellers, in the last month and that 7,000 vaccine doses are in stock. “We are working closely with the national government to heighten the alert on disease surveillance,” he said.
“We have enough stock of the yellow fever vaccine. We also have resources to scale it up if need be.”
The ministry sent the alert on Wednesday to points of entry to Kenya, hospitals and counties after a middle-aged who had been in Angola died at KNH. The man had initially been examined by a clinician in Eastleigh, who found he had a fever, joint pains and blood-stained stool.
The clinician referred him to Kenyatta National Hospital after his condition deteriorated. KEMRI said in a statement to newsrooms on Wednesday that its laboratory tests showed samples were positive for yellow fever. It is not clear how many other people the man interacted with and possibly infected.
