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EAC sends alarm over rift valley fever
At least 26 people in two Kenyan counties of Wajir and Tana River, are suspected to have contracted the infectious disease caused by the virus identified as 'Phlebovirus' type. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- South Sudan, another EAC member country with large number of livestock after Tanzania and Kenya, reported the outbreak of RVF in March this year. Reports had it that it has since been contained.
- Tanzania's minister for Agriculture Dr Charles Tizeba attended the meeting in Arusha to discuss the crisis while Uganda was represented by the minister for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja.
Livestock movement within the East African Community (EAC) partner states will be restricted to limit the spread of the Rift Valley Fever (RVF), a viral disease endemic to the region.
This was one of the measures announced today by the secretariat of the regional organization after a ministerial meeting which discussed the recent outbreak of the pandemic.
At least 26 people in two Kenyan counties of Wajir and Tana River, are suspected to have contracted the infectious disease caused by the virus identified as 'Phlebovirus' type.
By Saturday last week seven of the cases were confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and six of the cases have since died.
In Rwanda, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources confirmed cases of RVF among cattle after samples were tested at the laboratory.
South Sudan, another EAC member country with large number of livestock after Tanzania and Kenya, reported the outbreak of RVF in March this year. Reports had it that it has since been contained.
Tanzania's minister for Agriculture Dr Charles Tizeba attended the meeting in Arusha to discuss the crisis while Uganda was represented by the minister for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja.
No case of RVF has lately been reported in Tanzania but the government has called for heightened surveillance, especially in the livestock-rich northern regions which border Kenya.
Following the ministerial meeting on Thursday, the EAC secretariat has been tasked to closely monitor the outbreaks and the countries not yet affected, like Tanzania, to step up surveillance.
The EAC region suffered considerably from the outbreak of RFV in 2006/2007. Several deaths were reported in the rift valley regions in Kenya, Tanzania's Arusha and Manyara regions bordering Kenya.
RVF is essentially transmitted by infected mosquitos and is associated with heavy rainfall which resulted in widespread flooding, which has been the case this year.
It is spread by either touching infected animal's blood, breathing in the air around an infected animal being butchered, drinking raw milk from an infected animal, or from infected mosquitoes.
The meeting resolved that emerging and re-emerging diseases as a permanent agenda item in the subsequent meetings of the Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security of the six-nation EAC.
