The Public Health Department in Meru County has launched investigation into a mysterious disease that has affected more than 100 students from one secondary school in the last two weeks.
The department also wants to establish why the students from Kaaga Boys High school in Imenti North Sub County were treated for an unidentified ailment without their knowledge.
The affected students were treated at various hospitals with majority of them being admitted to Nairobi Women’s Hospital, Meru branch.
The county director of Public Health, Paul Kimathi, said an alarm was raised on Wednesday after at least 14 students were admitted to the hospital complaining of diarrhea and coughing.
The first patient was treated on April 1.
Kimathi said a rapid response health team has already been dispatched to the school and have collected samples which were sent to the Government Chemist for analysis.
“We want to establish why particularly the management at Nairobi Women’s Hospital did not inform us as is the procedure. There have been 101 reported cases within two weeks,” Kimathi said.
He said when his staff went to the hospital for investigations they had to ask for authority from Nairobi before disclosing to them the number of students who had been treated.
We have launched investigations to establish the cause of the disease. We have taken food and water samples from the school and infrastructure to find out if lighting or ventilation in stores could be the problem,” he said.
On Thursday, it emerged that seven students had been discharged from Nairobi Women’s Hospital and parents allowed to take them home while seven more were still admitted.
There was panic among parents who thronged the hospital as they sought more information.
Jane Nkatha, whose son was admitted to the hospital, said she did not receive any communication from the school over the Form Four student’s illness.
“On Wednesday I received a blank text message from the hospital and I thought it was junk so I deleted. This morning, somebody from the hospital called and told me I was required to pay Sh800 for my son’s treatment so I decided to come and see what was wrong,” Nkatha said.
The school management declined to speak to the media over the issue.
Meru County Director of Education, David Kenaiya, said he will issue a comprehensive report once more information on the ailments was obtained.
By John Majau
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