Health Cs Duale claims 88,000 kenyans screened for Ebola at entry points.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has assured Kenyans that the government has intensified surveillance and preparedness measures to prevent the spread of Ebola into the country.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale. Photo/Courtesy
By Violet Akinyi
The Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has reassured the country, somehow, that the government has laid down a sequence of measures, including checks at the airports, seaports and border entry points, just to keep Kenya safe from the Ebola virus. He said with atleast 88,000 people screened at the various arrival points into the country, you know, all in motion already.
Speaking during a fundraising event in Darulhikma village, Bura constituency, in Tana River county, on Sunday , the CS said that further 67 people had been tested, and their findings turned negative, he noted that the national government has stepped up surveillance and preparedness, among other things, training healthcare workers and constructing a quarantine facility in Laikipia.
Duale added that more than 800 health workers are currently undergoing training, while 29 counties have already named response teams and are working closely with the Ministry of Health, the Kenya National Public Health Institute and the Council of Governors , for speed.
His remarks come as Kenyans keep raising worries about the quarantine facility being built for US nationals , with fears that this deadly virus, first declared in the DRC on May 15, could somehow move into our borders.
At least 452 cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have been confirmed, and 82 deaths have been reported.
Still, Duale insists that inside Kenya, at least 88,000 people were tested and all of them turned negative.
“We tested 67 people as of yesterday , all of them have turned negative and we have done enough preparation. The country is on high alert, as we have as of this morning screened 88,000 people at the borders, at the airport and the seaport,” Duale said.
“All our laboratories are on high alert. The Kenyatta National Hospital, the national police service hospital, and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret have created beds enough within their isolation units in case we get a case,” he added.
The health CS defended the US partnership to build a quarantine facility, saying the site will not only help manage the Ebola outbreak but will also be used incase of other disease surges in the years ahead.
“We are partnering with the US to build a quarantine isolation, and treatment facility, a high-end facility dealing with infectious diseases for now and for the future. We want to prepare for any eventuality because this is the 17th ebola outbreak,” he said.
“As a country with a very robust healthcare system, the best in our region, we are prepared, and we will not take it lightly. I want to assure the citizens that our healthcare personnel, including the 170 healthcare workers who went to Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2015 to treat Ebola victims then, are here in the country; they are undergoing training and we will continue to train more,” he added.
To boost public awareness and early reporting, the Ministry of Health has also set up a toll-free reporting platform for citizens who experience symptoms linked to Ebola.
“We have set up a toll number, *719#, where citizens can call or send a text if they experience any medical conditions related to Ebola symptoms,” Duale said.
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