Mombasa, KENYA: Mombasa County government has started an exercise of spraying homes and chlorinating water sources as part of its public health measures of containing dengue, malaria and waterborne diseases.
Dengue and Malaria cases have been on the rise in the County since the onset of rains due to increase in the number of mosquitoes breeding and the health officers are also moving swiftly, to prevent possible cholera and waterborne diseases that may erupt owing to water contamination.
Speaking during the floods post disaster management committee meeting at the Governor’s office on Monday, county director of health Dr. Shem Patta said that already health team are continuing with the exercise that started last week.
The exercise was conducted in areas of Bamburi towards Kisauni, areas that were worst hit by heavy downpour that was caused floods, and areas that recorded high cases of dengue and malaria, before moving to other areas of the County.
“We have embarked on vector control that is spraying or mosquito fogging to control their breeding grounds. With the rains theira lot of pools of water which are the breeding sites for the mosquitoes,” said Dr. Patta.
He added that , some of the houses with pit latrines were completely submerged during the rains especially in Junda areas and thereby mixing with water sources. They are currently addressing the issue through chlorination.
The health department is also in the process of procuring rapid diagnostic kits for testing dengue fever for the public health facilities to strengthen diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
However, Lands County Executive Anthony Njaramba who chaired the post disaster management committee meeting, said they are currently identifying high risk areas such as buildings or structures set up on wetlands, riparian lands and natural waterways, so that they will be demolished to allow smooth drainage of water in the entire county.
“We are currently identifying all the hotspot areas and we’ll come up with permanent solutions,” Njaramba said.
The Subcounty and Ward Administrators were also urged to carry out sensitization programmes to educate affected residents on the urgency of relocating to safer areas without resistance and supervise garbage collection and drainage clearances.
Also, the county officials agreed to roll out a comprehensive infrastructural plan and a disaster preparedness blue print to avert such unfortunate occurrences in the future.
