Malaba residents express fear after MPox case reported at border. » Capital News
TESO, Kenya Aug 24 – Residents of Malaba have expressed fear after the second patient of MPox was reported at Malaba on Friday.
The 40-year-old truck driver who was traveling from Mombasa to DRC tested positive and he has been evacuated to Alupe Subcounty Referral Hospital in isolation to receive specialized treatment.
Busia County has become the second county in the country to report an MPox case as Africa and the world grapples with the emerging worrying disease that has become perhaps only the second after COVID-19.
The first case was reported on the Kenya-Tanzania border, with the Kenya government confirming that it had managed the situation after the victim recovered from the globally feared pandemic.
Confirming the incident on Friday, Kocholia Sub County Hospital Medical Officer in charge of the facility, Dr Evans Sumbeiyo said the Health Principal Secretary in the Ministry, Mary Muthoni had confirmed the rare Mpox case which might change the country’s trajectory in terms of bringing the disease under control.
Dr Sumbeiyo noted that a 40-year long-distance truck driver who was heading to Uganda developed some complications, including headaches, rushes, and soar throat after seeking medication at the health facility.
The MoH said the patient had been referred from Malaba Port Health at the Malaba One Stop Border Post to ascertain the cause of the strange symptoms before he was moved to Alupe Sub County Hospital for isolation and further management.
He said results that were released on Friday; 23rd September 2024, from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), confirmed that the truck driver was positive for the rare disease”, he said
Dr. Sumbeiyo said they have embarked on contact tracing to reduce the pandemic infections in the country as they intensify surveillance and community advocacy.
He urged Kenyans to return to the COVID-19 culture of always washing hands with soap and avoiding direct contact, lest the country will emulate the Democratic Republic of Congo where over 450 people have died from the pandemic so far
Mpox symptoms include fever, severe headache, muscle aches, swelling in the lymph nodes, back pain, and severe level asthenia that leads to a lack of energy.
Swelling in the lymph is the unique symptom of Mpox that helps in identifying this disease from other diseases that develop with similar symptoms in their initial phases such as smallpox, chickenpox, and measles.
Between 1 to 3 days of fever, a person will experience the skin eruption. These rashes mainly develop on the face and extremities in comparison to the trunk.
In 95 percent cases of Mpox, people develop rashes on the face, in 75 percent of cases, it affects palms and soles, oral mucous membranes in 70 percent of cases, genitalia in 30 percent of cases, and conjunctivae as well as the cornea in 20 percent of cases.
Malaba business community led by Joyce Akoit, Bernard Oure, Victor Nyapara, and Tobias Omuna are calling on the residents to embrace prevention measure as the disease is deadly.
The residents are now urging both national and county governments to do sensitization to residents at the border to mitigate the spread of the disease to other areas.
The World Health Organisation has announced the highest level of alert for MPox.
This follows an upsurge of m-pox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa. Sweden’s public health agency has also recently recorded what it says is the first case of the more dangerous type of MPox outside the African continent
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