Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
Competence and efficiency of health ministries in East Africa and their medical teams of experts has once again put to test following a recent fresh outbreak of the deadly Ebola scourge in Uganda.
When the outbreak of Ebola virus hit the cities within the region, particularly in the member state of the East African Community it caused alt of panicking forcing the health official to get into combative mood, scaring travelers and even in some places seemed to have hurt and dis harmonized the tourism industry, which is the mainstay of the region economies.
Ebola virus has been on and off in the region and in the wider Sub-Saharan Africa ever since it struck in the DRC {Congo} in the early 1980s.It spreads into the neighboring countries of Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and Uganda and claimed the lives of close to 300 people including a medic doctor.
The news of Ebola scourge sent the governments into high state of alertness, beefing security and medical checks along their frontiers. It has since caused havoc with traveling crossing borders into the neighboring countries causing undue delays at the immigration and health check-points.
At the same the Kenya government has ordered that all the children under the ages of five years, particularly those living in the villages and locations close to its common border with Uganda be vaccinated against polio.
The exercise which will last for the whole of this month{June 2011}targeted children in Busia and Butula districts, which borders Uganda, the district Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ambrose Fwamba has disclosed.
The mass vaccination exercise came as the result of the outbreak of polio in the neighboring Uganda since last October in Bugiri district in eastern part of that country which border Busia County across the common borders.
The polio vaccination on the Kenyan side of the border is just a follow of an earlier one in November, December and early in January, said the MOH.
The polio vaccination will be carried out by the government in collaboration with the developing partners, Dr Fwamba said, adding that the medical personnel would move from home to home to ensure that every child living in those homes is vaccinated.. It will involve 108 health workers will be involved, they would undertake the exercise between June 4, and 8th.These staff have been trained for the job.
Last year, polio vaccination was undertaken by the public health ministry in partnership with development partners. Those targeted were 902,721 children under the age of five I the 22 high risk districts.
In 2009, the oral polio vaccination coverage for Kenya was 73 per cent. Children under five years of age are most vulnerable to polio, infection virus disease that affects the nervous system.
In the history of the deadly Ebola, the first case this year was registered two weeks ago of a 12 year old a Ugandan girl in Luwero district, since then health officials in that country have been carrying out the vital investigative procedures in the district, which is situated only about 22 kilometers south west of the capital, Kampala to curb the virus from spreading.
Ebola virus has, since discovery, been categorized by the World Health Organization {WHO} into five species, depending on which area it has struck. The species are classified as “Zaire Ebola-virus, Gabon Ebola-virus, Sudan Ebola-virus Reston Ebola-virus, Cote d’Ivoire Ebola-virus and Bundibugwo Ebola-virus.
The Ebola virus is the most feared disease, was first detected in 1976 in Yambuku a small village in Mongala Province in north eastern region of DRC Congo formerly Zaire. Here, the lethal attacked one Mabala Loleka a school teacher, who became the first case recorded of the previously unheard deadly epidemic.
From the DRC Congo the virus invisibly “sneaked into the neighboring Sudan. In the same year only this time I different species form.
A worker in a cotton factory in Nzara, a county in Sudan, was the first to test death at the hands of Ebola fatality in the region.
N 1989, the Reston Ebola virus a sub-type was detected by health scientists in Reston, Virginia, USA.I was not a human being case, this time, and according to WHO assessment, the virus was quarantined in laboratory monkeys between 1987 and 1996, a period documented and record the death several monkeys reportedly imported from the Philippines to the US and to Italy.
The Cote d’Ivoire Ebola-species had claimed only one human life, but several Chipanzees were confirmed dead in the Western African coastal nation, also formerly known as Ivory Coast. The outbreak was reported to have occurred in November 1994.
Cutting a cross the borders of several African countries, the Ebola virus found its way back into its origin-DR Congo in 1995 only to claimed more lives in Kwikit {250 people died}I had more deaths in Yambuku {151 dead},19 years before then.
Gabon did not escape the Ebola a virus with the test case reported in 1994, leaving the trails of nine deaths in its path. The Ebola virus later dominated the region with sequential outbreaks in February and July 1996, having had a fair share of its dominance in the Sub-Saharan Africa, Ebola went into slumber and was unheard of for four years after the 1996 Gabon outbreak.
At the dawn of 2000, The Ugandan community was awakened by frightening news of the outbreak of a virus clearly unheard of by most Ugandans then in Gulu in the northern part of the country. However, it did not take long for the name “Ebola” to become a household name, considering the attention its prevalence was in the local and international media. Even with 21 million populations then, the average reported death of 162 as of December 2000 reported by WHO was too much contain.
Dr Mathews Lukwaya, who succumbed to the deadly bug at Lacor Hospital that fateful year become the first medical doctor to die of Ebola in Uganda. When the virus of sub-type Bundigwo Ebola-virus struck, Uganda lost yet another medical doctor from the disease. Dr Jonah Lule was his name. He was serving as the medical officer of health at Kikyo Health Center.
A highly contagious disease, Ebola is transmitted disease by direct contact with the blood, stool, secretions, organs or other body fluids of the infected persons. WHO has warns that any direct contact with the body of the deceased person, especially during burial ceremonies can accelerate the transmission of the virus.
Dr Lukwaya and Dr Lule were reported not to have got with patients of the virus ,which could explain the cause of their demise.
The WHO reports also indicated thathandling0fn Ebola infected o the dead Chimpanzees, gorilla and forest antelopes to a large extent account for the infection of the human in Cote d’Ivoire and DRC Congo and Gabon.
The WHO advice for Ebola reported cases, the isolation strategy is the key in containing the virus within a limited area. In medical facilities, suspected person should be isolated from other patients and highly protective medical attention provided. It is important to trace and follow up any persons the suspected individual might have come into direct contact with to prevent unknown consequential deaths.
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