Health Alerts

Kenyan health authorities together with other organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières. have been battling a  cholera epidemic in Kenya since January. In the past five months, the outbreak has spread to 10 of the country's 47 counties and has claimed 72 lives, according to official figures. The counties involved are in the central Kenya area but  as people move to and from the affected counties they are transferring the infection from one locality to the next. Due to high population mobility and congested living conditions the risk of spread to the capital Nairobi is high.

Cholera is essentially an extremely severe form of diarrhoea and treatment involves rapid rehydration. The cholera germ is spread through contaminated water or  raw or inadequately cooked food contaminated by infected water. For travellers and tourists the risk is very low provided attention is paid to standard hygiene and assuring safe water supply. However, an effective oral vaccine (Dukoral) is available and is recommended for those in whom safe water precautions are likely to be difficult. Others in whom it is worth considering the vaccine  are diabetics and other where there is likely to be diminished immune response to infections as well as those who are on intense anti- gastric reflux therapy.