NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 2 – Surveillance at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has been intensified to curtail the spread of MPOX amidst concerns of an upsurge at the border points and entry points.
The Ministry of Health has announced that all entry points to the country have been properly manned and kitted to check on any symptoms that visitors or Kenyan residents may present as they enter the country.
So far, Kenya has recorded 4 confirmed cases, and samples from a patient in Garbatulla in Isiolo county are still under scrutiny.
Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni announced the country has adequate protocols put in place, including thermos screening akin to what was used during the COVID-19 period to check on the temperatures of those coming into the country.
“We are asking the members of the public not panic and not to circulate information that is not verified.Until when the Ministry of Health will not pronounce itself on a case.Dont circulate data of individuals including photos,”she said.
The Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary made the revelations as she toured the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to assess the preparedness of the port health services.
Consequently, PS Muthoni says the Ministry of health has come up with a data collection procedure for all travelers into the country, whereby, travelers will be required to fill in a health information slip that would activate tracing in the event of suspected cases of the spreading MPOX virus.
“As a country we are okay and set. We have six checking stations at JKIA and we have intensified surveillance at the this entry points.In the last one mon5th we have screened 265 travellers in JKIA alone,” PS Muthoni said.
She further said that as much as surveillance has been heightened at the borders where most track drivers are coming in from as a key deterrent measure.
The country has reported four cases, mostly among long-distance truckers, but health officials suspected there are more undetected cases in the country.
Global partners are scrambling to procure Mpox vaccines to help stop the ongoing spread of the disease.
Alert has been raised that high level of population movement between Kenya and other East African countries, especially along the northern and central transport corridors, poses a significant risk of regional transmission as several countries in the region are currently reporting cases.
Mpox, the high infectious disease that used to be called monkeypox, has been declared a public health emergency in Africa by the continent’s top health body.
Scientists from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) say they are alarmed by the speed at which a new strain of mpox has been spreading.
Mpox spreads from animals to humans and between people through close contact with someone who is infected – including through sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person.
It can cause symptoms such as fever, muscle aches and lesions across the body. If left untreated, mpox can be deadly.
There are two main strains of the virus known to exist. The milder one caused the global outbreak in 2022 that affected Europe, Australia, the US and many other countries – and was mainly spread through sexual contact.
The second more deadly strain, endemic in central Africa, is behind the new recently discovered variant in DR Congo.
There are three vaccines that exist but only people at risk or who have been in close contact with an infected person are usually able to have it.
