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CHOLERA OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION IN LAMU COUNTY, DECEMBER 2023

Lamu County has not reported any cholera case since the year 2012. As at December 02, 2023, a total of 103 cases and 2 deaths had been reported from Lamu county. At the time, only Lamu county was reporting Cholera cases in the country, with the Case Fatality Rate of 1.9% (2/103). All the cases were from Mkomani (102) and Shella (1) wards in Lamu Central Sub-county. A total of 20 villages had been affected with three reporting majority of the cases including; Kashmir village at 23.3% (24/103), Kandahar 19.4% (20/103) and India 17.5% (18/103). All the cases were reported from Lamu County Referral Hospital at 95.1% (98) and Langoni Hospital 4.9% (5) cases.

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The reported cases however, might be an underestimate of the actual burden of cholera in the County as community cases and those attended to from private health facilities might have been missed. Potential source of the infection and associated risk factors had not been identified. Adequate prevention and control measures also needed to be instituted to stop transmissions the outbreak. This necessitated the Ministry of Health to dispatch an investigation team drawn from Disease Surveillance and Response Unit (DSRU), National Public Health Laboratories (NPHLS), Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) and the Kenya Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) to support the County in outbreak response and control.

The investigation helped determine the actual burden of cholera, identify potential risk factors and strengthen the public health system to improve cholera management, control, and prevention. At the end of the investigation, the findings and recommendations from the investigation were disseminated to various stakeholders including the Ministry of Health at both the county and national levels, and other stakeholders.

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