Kenya trains 30,000 medics on Ebola fight

People wait to be screened as part of protective measures against the Ebola virus, at a border crossing with Sierra Leone in Liberia’s western Cape Mount province. AFP PHOTO  

By GERALD ANDAE

In Summary

• The training is being conducted by 150 doctors who specialise in infectious diseases.
• Doctors had warned that the country lacked the planning and infrastructure necessary to contain an outbreak of the epidemic.

The Health ministry has started training more than 30,000 health workers to tackle the deadly Ebola outbreak amid a cash crunch.

The training is being conducted by 150 doctors who specialise in infectious diseases.

“We are training health workers countrywide on basic principles of Ebola screening, infection prevention and control and management,” said Dr Nicholas Muraguri, the director of medical services.

He added that the ministry had established isolation facilities at Jomo Kenyatta Interational Airport, Kenyatta National Hospital and other health facilities for management of the disease.

Doctors had warned that the country lacked the planning and infrastructure necessary to contain an outbreak of the epidemic.

The Treasury had only provided half of the Sh680 million the Health ministry needed to keep the disease at bay as it continues to spread in West Africa.

The World Bank’s Ebola Impact Index, released two weeks ago, showed that Kenya has a five per cent chance of having to deal with the disease in the next one month if the three worst-affected West African countries fail to contain its spread.

READ: Kenya in list of 19 countries at risk from Ebola epidemic

The disease has killed nearly 4,500 people so far, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The government has been unable to buy five mobile isolation units as well as build six fixed isolation centres in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Nakuru and Kisumu to deal with a possible outbreak.

No Ebola cases have been confirmed in Kenya. About 14 automated infra-red thermo scan machines will be installed at airports and other points of entry to enhance the detection of the virus.

Currently, health workers are using hand held thermometers