Monkey Pox popularly known as the Mpox virus case has been confirmed in Makueni County. This makes it the first County in Lower Eastern to report a case.
According to the Ministry of health, the case was reported in Makindu after a 38-year-old man who is a lorry driver tested positive.
The lorry driver is said to have been travelling from Uganda when he was taken to Makindu level 4 hospital and he tested positive of the virus.
“The Ministry of Health is committed to keeping the public informed on the ongoing Mpox outbreak in Kenya. Today, the Ministry provides the latest update on the situation and reiterates the importance of following preventive measures to control the spread of the virus—Mpox Situation in Kenya.The Ministry of Health wishes to report that two (2) new Mpox cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours from Makueni and Kajiado Counties respectively,”read the statement.
So far seven cases have been reported country wide with no deaths recorded.
“This has brought the total number of confirmed cases to seven. The confirmed Mpox
cases are distributed countrywide as follows: Taita Taveta (1), Busia (1), Nairobi (I), Mombasa (1), Nakuru (1), Makueni (1) and Kajiado (1), “the statement further read.
61 contacts for the first 5 cases were identified, listed, traced and monitored and completed the recommended 21-day follow-up period. Only one of the contacts tested positive for Mpox during the follow-up period. Contact tracing for the two newly confirmed cases is currently ongoing in the affected Counties.
Further, in the last 24 hours, 16,033 travellers have been screened at Points of Entry (POEs), contributing to a cumulative total of 1,002,62I travellers screened
across the 26 POEs since the outbreak began. The National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) has tested 190 samples from 28 counties, with 7 testing positive, 178 negative, and 5 samples currently being tested,” The statement went on.
