Wajir emergency declared after cholera outbreak

An outbreak of cholera has killed at least 12 people in northeastern Kenya in the last week, according to Kenyan radio. Following a crisis meeting in Wajir town, Wajir District Commissioner Fred Mutsemi declared a state of emergency and said the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the NGO Save the Children Fund, had established an emergency camp to deal with the increasing number of cholera victims. Mutsemi was quoted as saying that most of the victims were pastoralists who had collapsed and died before they had been able to reach health facilities. UNOCHA Kenya said in its humanitarian update for June that an estimated 270 cases of diarrhoea and vomiting had resulted in 17 deaths, indicating that the actual number of cholera cases was much higher than the 83 already confirmed. There was “major cause for concern”, the report added. Thirty-five people had been admitted to the treatment centre in Hadado, 100 km west of Wajir town, and a further 29 suspected cases had been reported in Habaswein, 150 km from Wajir, OCHA said. Twenty four temporary health centres had now been established in the district to treat new cases, and UNICEF had worked with the district water officer to chlorinate wells and conduct health education activities, OCHA added.