We are ready to handle Ebola, state says

Kenya is prepared to deal with
Ebola, the deadly viral disease
which has sparked worldwide
panic, according to medical
authorities.
Isolation beds have been set up at
the Kenyatta National Hospital,
diagnostic areas have been
prepared at the Kenya Medical
Research Institute and 50 health
and mortuary workers have been
trained to handle Ebola patients.
Kenya was by Monday one of the
countries still allowing direct
flights to West African countries
where the World Health
Organisation has declared the
disease out of control.
On Monday, Ivory Coast banned all
flights from countries hit by Ebola
as part of steps to prevent the
spread of the deadly disease from
its neighbours.
British Airways, Emirates Airlines,
Pan African airline Aruj and ASKY
and Chad have all suspended
flights to and from the affected
destinations.
At the weekend, Nigeria stopped
the Gambian national carrier,
Gambia Bird Airlines, from flying
into the country, alleging
“unsatisfactory” measures by the
airline to contain the spread of
Ebola.
'LITTLE RISK'
The current Ebola outbreak started
in Guinea in March and spread to
Sierra Leone and Liberia. Nigeria
is the latest to report cases of
Ebola.
Kenya Airways maintains direct
flight to Monrovia, Conakry and
Freetown, the capital cities of the
disease-hit countries. The airline
says there is little risk of the
disease making its way to Kenya.
The disease spread to Lagos
through a Liberian who flew to the
Nigerian commercial capital on
July 20. He died five days later but
had already infected eight people
one of them a nurse, who died last
week.
In total Nigeria has 10 confirmed
cases but of great concern is the
people who came into contact with
them, and other secondary
contacts. The country has 177
people under observation and has
declared a medical emergency.
So far, 961 people have died in the
four countries with Ebola and
more than 1,700 are infected.
Africa has had several outbreaks of
Ebola in the past, but they have
mainly been in remote villages
where the virus spreads from wild
animals to human beings.
The current outbreak is in the
cities where there is heightened
contact between people and where
a patient can travel virtually the
entire globe in a matter of days.
ISOLATION WARD
On Monday, the Director of
Medical Services, Dr Nicholas
Muraguri, said the isolation ward
at KNH has a capacity of 16 beds
ready for any Ebola cases.
In a week’s time, he said it would
be expanded to 30 beds. “We have
20 doctors trained to deal with
Ebola at Kenyatta National
Hospital. We want, in the next few
weeks, to train about 100 health
workers,” he said by phone.
They will include doctors, nurses
and even mortuary attendants
“since information we have from
West Africa shows that if it is not
the doctor who dies, then even
guys at the mortuary who handle
bodies of Ebola victims die,” he
said.
The DMS said they had also come
up with a plan B in case KNH is
overwhelmed.
“We are looking at county facilities
here in Nairobi, Mombasa and
Eldoret. At Kemri, he said, there is
an advanced viral diagnostic
laboratory built a few years ago
after the country was ravaged by
Rift Valley Fever. We learnt a
lesson at that time and resources
were invested to build the
laboratory. We also have our own
trained virologists.”
Dr Muraguri said the government
had formed a multi-agency
taskforce which has been meeting
since the Ebola outbreak was
confirmed. It draws membership
from the Ministry of Health,
Department of Immigration, Kenya
Airways and Kenya Airports
Authority.
“We will have a briefing on
Wednesday and after that we will
go to the JKIA to see the measures
the government has taken.”
Dr Muraguri said they had trained
an adequate number of doctors,
bought enough drugs and
protective gear and installed a
surveillance system.
“We have the required capacity to
deal with any Ebola case if such
(an) eventuality was to occur in
this country,” he assured the
public.
A 43-year-old passenger who
arrived on Friday and rushed to
KNH was found to have been
suffering from food poisoning and
not Ebola. The passenger had
arrived from Uganda