Kenya disease outbreaks: 2007 to 2022

Six counties account for a quarter of all the disease outbreaks reported in Kenya for the last 15 years, the Ministry of Health’s surveillance report has said. The analysis also says Kenya is battling more outbreaks every year.

In 2012 only one county reported an outbreak, but in 2022 all the 47 counties reported outbreaks, mainly the Covid-19. The analysis, which covers 2007- 2022, was published by the BMC Research Notes journal on October 15.

It says six counties – Garissa, Nairobi, Nakuru, Wajir, Mandera and Mombasa – accounted for a quarter of the 457 outbreaks reported in 15 years.

“The average number of outbreaks reported per county was four. Nairobi reported the highest number of cases and deaths of all the outbreaks, with approximately a third of the cases and a quarter of the deaths. Samburu reported the lowest number of cases,” the authors said.

They said factors such as population density, proximity to international borders and access to healthcare services contributed to these disparities.