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The Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organisation is set to train over one thousand health workers as part of ongoing measures to mitigate against a possible importation of the deadly Ebola Virus disease into the country.
The training, that kicked off this week, has seen 75 health workers drawn from the national level and Nairobi County receive essential information and techniques required to deal with the disease as well as training on preparedness and response with the exercise set to be cascaded to the county and sub county levels in the 20 counties most at risk of EVD importation. About 1,400 Health Workers are targeted in the ongoing exercise.
The development coming as Uganda announced a rise in confirmed Ebola cases to 109 with 30 fatalities.
The ministry of health had last month issued an alert to all counties across the country following an alert forwarded by the Ugandan government to Kenya in line with East African Community Health protocols over the outbreak of the disease that was detected in Ngabano village of Madudu Sub County in Central Uganda.
As part of the interventions put in place by the Kenyan government, all county administrations were urged to remain vigilant and enhance surveillance especially at the border, activate rapid response teams to support identification of any suspected cases and make prompt reporting, screen at risk populations including travellers, truck drivers, bush meat handlers and healthcare workers as well as sensitize the community to identify suspected cases. They were also urged to sensitize healthcare workers on infection, prevention and control measures, case management and sample management and to mobilize relevant stakeholders to initiate prevention, preparedness and response measures.
Ebola virus disease is a severe and often fatal illness in humans caused by the Ebola virus. The virus is normally found in animals but spread from animals to human beings and occurs when there is interaction between the infected animals and healthy humans. Human to human transmission of Ebola occurs through contact with body fluids such as blood, sweat, urine, semen, vaginal fluids, diarrhea and vomitus from the infected person directly or indirectly through contaminated surfaces and fomites.