Health officials have said that at least nine people were killed and over sixty remain in critical condition on Saturday after an outbreak of cholera in a slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi.
A mission hospital in the Mukuru kwa Njenga district of Nairobi said that the first cases had been reported on Monday, but had increased substantially by Friday.
—Physician at Kenyatta National Hospital"We have so far recorded nine deaths from the Mukuru slums in Nairobi and some of them might have also died at home and so we believe this number is very conservative because it is not accounting for home deaths," said a physician at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
The outbreak has been blamed on poor sanitation and low levels of hygiene. Community health worker Peninah Nzuki told the Daily Nation news agency that “the water is dirty and the levels of hygiene are poor, thus the disease is spreading fast."
Officials, however, have warned that the true death toll may be higher than indicated, as some people might have died before reaching hospitals.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!
Share this: 






This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

At least nine dead after cholera outbreak in Kenyan slum