World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
speaks during a press conference in Geneva following emergency talks
over the new SARS-like virus spreading in China and other nations on
January 22, 2020. PHOTO | PIERRE ALBOUY | AFP
The World Health Organization (WHO) has
said Kenya is among countries to be provided with reagent kits so as to
ensure rapid detection of the deadly coronavirus.
The
news came as health officials confirmed that three people were
quarantined after showing symptoms consistent with the infection.
A
Chinese national and a Ugandan man who arrived at Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport (JKIA) were isolated at the Kenyatta National
Hospital (KNH) in Nairobi.
Officials
offered scant details about the patients, though they confirmed that
the Ugandan, who was in transit, arrived at 5.30am.
The third patient, a 22-year-old woman from Likoni sub-county, arrived in Kenya from China on January 30.
The student from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou was admitted to Coast General Hospital in Mombasa
“She is currently isolated in a
private room at Rahimtullah ward. Her blood samples have been sent to
Nairobi for analysis. She started feeling unwell while in China,
complaining of chest pain and difficulty in breathing,” said Dr Khadija
Shikely, Mombasa County's Health Chief Officer.
TESTS NEGATIVE
The
Ministry of Health on Sunday said preliminary results on the three were
negative for the virus but maintained samples would be sent to South
Africa for further tests.
Last
week, Kenya sent samples to South Africa to find if a student who had
travelled from Wuhan, China, to Nairobi had the virus.
The ministry reported on Friday that the unnamed male student, who was isolated at the KNH, were negative.
“Since
this is a new virus, there are currently only two referral laboratories
in the African region. However, reagent kits are being shipped to more
than 20 other countries in the region, so diagnostic capacity is
expected to increase over the coming days,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti,
WHO's Regional Director for Africa.
MANY LINKS
Although
there continues to be no reported cases of coronavirus in the African
region, the WHO noted that there are many links between China and the
African continent.
For
this reason, it said, all countries should be prepared to contain the
virus in active surveillance, early detection, isolation, case
management, contact tracing and prevention of the spread and to share
full data with WHO.
Kenya
has so far been identified as among the 13 top priority countries that
have direct links or a high volume of travel to China.
The
others are Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania,
Uganda and Zambia.
The
WHO said these countries would be its first areas of focus at this time
and that active screening at airports had been established in most of
them.
EMERGENCY
Last
week, the WHO determined that the outbreak, which has left 305 dead and
14,300 infected so far, constitutes a public health emergency of
international concern.
All but one of the deaths have been in mainland China.
“Our
greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries
with weaker health systems,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said.
In
China, almost 60 million people remain in effective lockdown as the
country battles to contain the virus amid reports its health system is
on its knees, running out of beds and supplies.
No comments :
Post a Comment