Nairobi, Kenya — The Kenyan health ministry Wednesday announced plans to conduct a yellow fever vaccination campaign in Baringo District, Rift-Valley Province, to curb the re-occurrence of the disease in the area.

Yellow fever killed 500 people in Baringo district during 1992/93.

Kenya news agency quoted the permanent health secretary, Julius Meme, as saying during a tour of Baringo medical facilities that a fresh yellow fever vaccination exercise had become necessary a decade after the first campaign was undertaken.

Without giving a date, he explained that the ministry had decided to take adequate precautionary measures to avoid the re-occurrence of the deadly disease as happened in 1992 "when many people died of the disease before it was diagnosed as yellow fever."

He also announced that the ministry would soon start the rehabilitation of all rural health facilities that were more than 10 years old, noting that the rural facilities served over 80 percent of Kenya's population.