Two further deaths have been confirmed, bringing the total number of fatalities from the kala-azar outbreak in Wajir County to 22.
The illness is causing an increasing number of patients to be admitted to the Wajir Referral Hospital.
Since it began to spread in December of last year, Kala-azar has infected hundreds of people and sent tens to hospitals across the county.
Patients who were brought in while they were really unwell make up the majority of those who have died. A youngster was admitted, and the majority of them died within 30 minutes, according to Habiba Ali, Wajir’s CEC for Health.
The illness, which affects both young people and the elderly, has been spreading throughout Wajir’s four sub-counties.
Weight loss, anemia, enlarged livers and spleens, and sporadic episodes of fever are all symptoms of the illness.
Children under the age of five are the most impacted, which explains the high number of case fatalities. Children are unable to combat invasive diseases due to their weakened immune systems,” says Ali.
As the disease’s impact increases daily, the county’s referral hospital must make do with additional bed space to accommodate the overflow of patients.
Additionally, the county is running low on blood, a vital component of illness control.
However, the testing problem still exists as the county scrambles to contain the instances.
“The test kits are highly specialized and must be obtained from the Netherlands. In addition, there is the curative component of spraying the areas where the insects are found,” states Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdilahi.
The county has sent fifty community health workers to Wajir West and Eldas, the two most affected counties, to conduct a major fumigation exercise in an effort to address the issue at its root.
The disease is transmitted by sandfly bites. The county is also doing disease awareness campaigns in addition to the fumigation.
