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Concern over Uganda yellow fever alert targeting Kenya

“There has been no local transmission in the country as per the World Health Organisation case definition,” he said/FILE

“There has been no local transmission in the country as per the World Health Organisation case definition,” he said/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 1 – Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu has taken issue with a Ugandan Government poster which implies that there is an outbreak of yellow fever in Kenya.

Mailu has demanded an immediate clarification from Ugandan authorities saying that while there were two reported cases of yellow fever in Kenya, they were imported from Angola.

“There has been no local transmission in the country as per the World Health Organisation case definition,” he said.

Mailu took exception to the pull-up posters which state: “There is a yellow fever outbreak in Kenya, Angola and DRC,” saying they create the false impression that Kenya is an unsafe destination to travel to.

“It’s been more than two weeks since the last case was reported and the threat of an outbreak in Kenya is highly unlikely,” he sought to assure.

Health officials at all ports of entry were put on the alert after a Kenyan who was residing in Angola succumbed to the illness on March 16 while receiving treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

“We are not taking any chances, and that is why we have advised health workers at the airports and other areas to thoroughly screen passengers and take travel history of anyone from Angola and other countries listed as having an active outbreak by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” the Director of Medical Services Jackson Kioko said at the time.

READ: Kenya on alert after yellow fever death at KNH

Around the same time another Kenyan who returned to the country from Angola following the outbreak was diagnosed as having the infection but he his case was not fatal.

“We have confirmed the second case of yellow fever on a man who had been living in Angola for more than 10 years,” Kioko said of the shopkeeper. “Even though it has been confirmed that he has yellow fever, his condition is stable and he will be fine,”

READ: Another Kenyan from Angola has yellow fever

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A yellow fever epidemic in Angola has killed at least 250 people since the end of December and continues to spread, stretching limited resources.

There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, a viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and found in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America’s Amazon region.

Angolan authorities launched a mass vaccination campaign in February and the government urged residents to sterilise stagnant water before drinking it.

Luanda remains the worst-hit area, with nine of every 10 deaths registered in the city over the last days.

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