Kenyans warned of new Covid-19 symptoms

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:48 pm

Kenyans and medics have been advised to be vigilant after reports that people infected by coronavirus across the world were exhibiting new symptoms.

The ministry has also projected that the peak of infections in the country is expected to be around August and September where Kenyans are expected to see at least 200 cases recorded in a day.

Further, patients who have recovered from the virus have been advised to continue adhering to regulations put in place by the ministry after it emerged that they can suffer infection more than once as the virus can reoccur between 30 and 50 days after recovery.

“It has been found that this happens only in patients with compromised immune systems, which is why we should again be aware of these developments,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said on Thursday.

Reports from various countries indicate that as the virus continues to spread, infected persons are increasingly exhibiting new, less typical non-respiratory system symptoms such as sudden strokes in young people and multi-inflammatory symptoms with similar features to those of Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome in children.

The cases have largely been confined to the US, the UK, France, Italy and Spain and have so far not been seen in Kenya.

“Nonetheless you need to be cognisant of them because in each of these cases tested for antibodies the results were positive which indicates that the patients had been exposed to Covid-19,” Kagwe said.

In addition, it has emerged that there is a growing number of patients exhibiting non-typical flu-like symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress syndrome that leads to loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and chicken pox-like lesions.

“Over the past two weeks, we have increased our testing capacity by more than 40 per cent and we intend to continue with this escalation. I would, therefore, like to encourage you the public and our medics to be alive to these symptoms.”

Kagwe said the new development has made several countries experience a reemergence of Covid-19 after they had successfully contained it.

Some such as Iran, South Korea, Germany, China and Ghana have been forced to enforce restrictions that they had earlier eased.

Kagwe called on Kenyans to keep the social distancing requirements, isolation and wearing of masks guidelines that the Ministry of Health has issued.

(TheStar)