Residents of Malaba have expressed fear after the second patient with MPox disease was reported at the Malaba border crossing.
The 40-year-old truck driver who was travelling from Mombasa to DRC tested positive, and he has been evacuated to Alupe Sub-county Referral Hospital in isolation to receive specialised treatment.
Busia County has become the second county in the country to report an Mpox case as Africa and the world grapple with the outbreak of the highly contagious disease that has become perhaps only the second after COVID-19.
The first case was reported on the Kenya-Tanzania border, with the Kenyan government confirming that it had managed the situation after the victim recovered from the globally feared pandemic.
Confirming the incident on Friday, Kocholia Sub County Hospital Medical Officer in charge of the facility, Dr. Evans Sumbeiyo, said the Health Principal Secretary in the Ministry, Mary Muthoni, had confirmed the rare Mpox case, which might change the country’s trajectory in terms of bringing the disease under control.
“On the 1st of August, 2024, the driver arrived in DR Congo, Bunya district, between the 1st -3rd August, 2024. He left DRC on 3rd August, 2024 to Uganda, where he stayed for three (3) days loading cargo. He left for Kenya from Uganda on 6th August, 2024, through Malaba OSBP but did not pass through the Port Health screening desk or Immigration Department.
Preliminary reports indicated that the driver had travelled to Mombasa, arrived on 8th August, 2024 and went to his family at Mikindani before leaving for Uganda on 15th August, 2024 in the evening .
But upon arrival at Malaba town on 19th August, 2024, where he spent the night, he developed a fever, and on 20st August, 2024 in the evening before his symptoms were detected at 1915hrs during routine check at the Port Health screening desk.
Dr. Sumbeiyo noted that a 40-year-old long-distance truck driver who was heading to Uganda developed some complications, including headaches, rushes, and a sore throat, after seeking medication at the health facility.
The MoH said the patient had been referred from Malaba Port Health at the Malaba One Stop Border Post to ascertain the cause of the strange symptoms before he was moved to Alupe Sub County Hospital for isolation and further management.
He said results that were released on Friday; 23rd September 2024, from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), confirmed that the truck driver was positive for the rare disease.
Dr. Sumbeiyo said they have embarked on contact tracing to reduce the pandemic infections in the country as they intensify surveillance and community advocacy.
He urged Kenyans to return to the COVID-19 culture of always washing hands with soap and to avoid direct contact.
Mpox symptoms include fever, severe headaches, muscle aches, swelling in the lymph nodes, back pain, and severe-level asthenia that leads to lack of energy.
Swelling in the lymph is the unique symptom of Mpox that helps in identifying this disease from other diseases that develop with similar symptoms in their initial phases, such as smallpox, chickenpox, and measles.
Between 1 to 3 days of fever, a person will experience a skin eruption. These rashes mainly develop on the face and extremities with comparison to the trunk.
In 95% of cases of Mpox, people develop rashes on the face; in 75% of cases, it affects palms and soles; oral mucous membranes in 70% of cases; genitalia in 30% of cases, and conjunctivae as well as the cornea in 20% of cases.
The Malaba business community, led by Joyce Akoit, Bernard Oure, Victor Nyapara, and Tobias Omuna, is calling on the residents to embrace prevention measures as the disease is deadly.
The residents are now urging both the national and county governments to sensitise residents at the border to mitigate the spread of the disease to other areas.
The World Health Organisation has announced the highest level of alert for mpox. This follows an upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa. Sweden’s public health agency has also recently recorded what it says is the first case of the more dangerous type of mpox outside the African continent.
By Absalom Namwalo
