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KNH unveils Kenya’s first Ebola isolation unit

Are our facilities well equipped to combat Ebola? A construction of a building that will be used as Ebola isolation facility at Kenyatta National Hospital. [Photo: Beverlyne Musili/Standard]

Kenya’s first Ebola isolation facility built at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) grounds is expected to be opened in two weeks. The facility built quietly in less than two months, has been under tight security reflecting the urgency of a specialised unit to prepare Kenya in the event of an Ebola outbreak.

The Standard on Saturday learnt of the Sh100 million isolation unit as the government plans to send 115 medical health staff to West Africa in a move to prevent Ebola spread into the country. But some medical health staff are already faulting the move, citing the capacity of the facility and its location.

Located, 100 metres from the Accident and Emergency Department, a bungalow comprises treatment rooms, consultation and changing rooms and a holding room to serve as temporary mortuary. The government says the facility is meant to supplement the earlier 20-bed isolation unit that has been used for other highly infectious diseases like Tuberculosis.

The building contract was awarded to China Jiangxi International Kenya Limited in August, to set up one-storied multi-functional house with multiple isolation and treatment rooms to ease movement during treatment.

Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri, confirms to The Standard on Saturday that the facility is also expected to serve as a training and research centre for drills on infectious diseases for health workers at KNH beyond the Ebola outbreak.

“The 40-bed capacity isolation unit is a stand-alone bungalow specially equipped to handle infectious patients with utmost care to ensure the health worker is also well-protected. It is expected to be complete in a fortnight,” Dr Muraguri says.

However, Dr Mbira Gikonyo says the government’s decision to build the isolation unit within the KNH grounds is an ill-informed decision given the human-traffic at the referral facility.

“On an average day, there are about 30,000 people in Kenyatta including 2,000 in-patients and the rest comprise out-patients, relatives checking or accompanying their loved ones, and also the KNH staff making this facility too risky to be situated here,” Dr Mbira notes.

Dr Mbira points out that the isolation facility should have been established outside town like in Athi River, borrowing from the setting up of the current Mbagathi District Hospital as a stand-alone health facility that was initially referred to as the Infectious Disease Unit when it was built in the 1950s, to offer health care services, mainly for infectious diseases, which required isolation such as tuberculosis, measles, meningitis and leprosy.

However, some health experts are in agreement that the location is appropriate and poses no public health threat. The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union Secretary General Sultani Matendechero, welcomed the move, but challenged the tightening of other approaches if Kenya is to declare that it is ready. He also termed the proposal to send health workers to volunteer in the Ebola-stricken countries an important step in containing the disease.

Sources within the ministry told The Standard on Saturday that plans were under way for a life insurance cover for 15 doctors and 100 other health workers. Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, points out that the volunteers are likely to serve in the affected countries on rotational basis of an agreed period of time as prolonged exposure can increase the risk of contracting the virus.

“You cannot keep a health worker at a stressful place for a long time, so we will work out on the agreed times to service in West Africa,” Mr Macharia told The Standard on Saturday.

The African Union through the initiative, Operation African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak, is optimistic that the deployment of nurses, physicians, general practitioners, epidemiologists and public health officers will stem the outbreak that has now spread to six countries, including Senegal.

Medical aid agencies responding to the outbreak in West Africa, admitted that they are now stretched to the limit, some of them infected, others dying while several public health workers abandoned their jobs citing lack of support.

Kenya has also acquired eight Sh12 million thermo-scanners from Belgium for the detection of Ebola at airports and border points. Four of the thermo-scanners will be used at the JKIA, two at Eldoret International Airport and another two will be at the Moi International Airport, Mombasa.

Mr Macharia says this was part of the recommendations by two epidemiologists, Dr Elizabeth Mgamb and Dr David Oluoch, who travelled to West Africa in August to assess Kenya’s exposure to Ebola via air-travel. The pair who travelled to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria, have presented a report with proposals to include thermo-scanners as part of the screening equipment, especially at the airports.

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