By Reuben Olita
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 was transferred to 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 to the rare disease”, he said.
An Mpox victim
Dr. Sumbeiyo said they have embarked on contact tracing to reduce the pandemic infections in the country as they intensify on surveillance and community advocacy.
He urged Kenyans to return to the covid-19 culture of always washing hands with soap and to avoid direct contacts, lest the country will emulate the Democratic Republic of Congo where over 450 people have died from the pandemic so far
Anglican Church of Kenya Katakwa Diocese Bishop John Okude on Thursday urged the county and national governments to increase patrols along the Busia and Malaba Border points to avoid the impending mpox catastrophe.
Addressing the press after housewarming of his son Nicodemus Okille, 28, and wife Maximilla Adeke at Aciit village, Chakol North Ward in Teso South Sub County, Bishop Okude said Kenya should not under estimate the dangers posed by, formerly known as monkeypox, which is a global endemic.
” We have ebola and Covid-19. Today, a strange Mpox pox disease. The government should bring all machinery at its disposal so that we don’t live in fear again,” he said.
Mpox can be caused through prolonged
touching objects or can spread to anyone through contact with objects, fabrics, and surfaces that have not been disinfected after use by someone with mpox. This includes
items like clothing, bedding, towels, fetish gear, or sex toys.
Mpox can also be spread through direct, close contact with an infected animal, fluids or waste, or getting bitten or scratched.
To reduce the risk of spreading mpox between animals and people:
avoid close contact with an animal that might have mpox.
Those who have mpox should avoid contact
with animals, including pets, to prevent spreading the virus to them.
Mpox symptoms include fever, severe headache, muscle aches, swelling in the lymph nodes, back pain, and severe level asthenia that leads to 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 with comparison to the trunk.
In 95% cases of Mpox, people develop rashes on the face, in 75% of cases, it affects palms and soles, oral mucous membranes in 70% of cases, genitalia in 30% cases, and conjunctivae as well as the cornea in 20% of cases.
