Mandera County in Kenya’s North Eastern Region is the latest county to be affected by a cholera outbreak that has been ongoing in the country for approximately 17 months. Since April, almost 800 cases have been reported in Mandera including 11 deaths.
The outbreak is mainly concentrated in Mandera Township, home to around 90,000 people.
At the same time, an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease chikungunya is placing further pressure on already stretched health services. There are an estimated 260 suspected cases according to the Ministry of Health, seven of which have been confirmed by laboratory tests. Several health staff are among those affected.
Mandera Referral Hospital has been quickly overwhelmed with cholera patients, and teams from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are now urgently supporting the Ministry of Health to respond. MSF has constructed an 80-bed cholera treatment centre in the grounds of the hospital which started receiving patients on 26 May.