Meru County probes mystery ailment in 100 students
Kaaga Boys High School in Meru. The county government is probing the admission of the school students to hospital without its knowledge.
The public health department in Meru County is investigating how more than 100 students from one secondary school were treated for an unidentified ailment over the past two weeks without it being notified.
The students from Kaaga Boys High school in Imenti North were treated at various hospitals but most of them were admitted to Nairobi Women's hospital Meru branch at Makutano.
While the first patient was treated on April 1, the alarm was sounded when on Wednesday at least 14 students were admitted to the hospital complaining of diarrhoea and coughing, said Mr Paul Kimathi, the county director of public health.
A rapid response health team was quickly dispatched to the school and collected samples, which were sent to the Government Chemist for analysis, he said.
“There have been 101 reported cases within two weeks and we want to establish why particularly the management at Nairobi Women’s hospital did not notify us as is the procedure,” Mr Kimathi said in a phone interview with Nation.
“Even when my staff went there, they had to ask for authority from Nairobi to disclose to us 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 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.
Ms 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,” Ms Nkatha said.
While the school management declined to talk to the press, Meru county director of Education David Kenaiya said he would give a detailed briefing once more information on the ailment was obtained.
