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Kenya: Alarm Over Food Poisoning
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The Nation (Nairobi)
1 July 2008
Posted to the web 1 July 2008
Simon Siele and Cosmas Butunyi
Nairobi
One person died and more than 30 others were admitted to a Nakuru hospital following an outbreak of a disease believed to be cholera.
All are residents of Echariria and Kasambara in Mbaruk, about 15 kilometres from Nakuru Town. Another victim, from Manyani estate in Nakuru Town, was also admitted.
Doctors attributed the outbreak of the disease to contaminated food and water.
On Monday, 26 patients were admitted to an isolation ward at Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital as more victims continued to stream in the out-patient wing.
The hospital is experiencing an acute water shortage after a water company disconnected supply early last month over a Sh43 million bill.
The hospital's medical superintendent, Dr George Mugenya, said the water crisis at the hospital needed to be urgently addressed following the outbreak.
Clean rooms
"We came here on Friday and more are still coming. We believe the sickness is being caused by water because most of us rely on Mbaruku river as we cannot access piped water," said a Mr Waititu whose wife and a child are at the hospital.
Nurses had a difficult task trying to clean the rooms with the limited water bought from vendors.
The authorities are now seeking a political solution between the ministries of Health and that of Water to strike a deal on how the pending bill would be cleared.
Seven Kibos Medium Security Prison inmates have been admitted to Kisumu District Hospital with symptoms similar to those of cholera.
However, Nyanza provincial prison officer Amos Misik said that laboratory reports had indicated that the victims were not suffering from cholera.
Isolation ward
However, a source at the hospital insisted that the inmates were suffering from the killer disease and had been put in the isolation ward.
The source said that one inmate was in critical condition.
Mr Misik said that 20 other inmates had complained of similar symptoms but it had not been established whether they were suffering from the disease.
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The head of Kibos prison, Mr George Diang'a, said the disease was first reported at the facility at the weekend.
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