Aroo Sub-County

The County Government has recently reported increasing cases of disease outbreaks in Turkana including Kal Azar, Malaria, Cholera and Measles, calling for an integrated response. While Cholera has the highest number of reported cases in Turkana West, Measles has been predominantly active in Loima and Aroo sub-counties.

The first Mealses case was reported on March 13, 2023, and it was declared as an outbreak on March 21 and declare closed on December 10, 2024. The second outbreak with six reported cases happened between December 23, 2024, and January 12, 2025. The third wave was declared on January 13 in Loma and Turkana Central Sub-County and after a total of 21 reported cases, this outbreak was declared closed on March 13, 2025.

According to Absolom Kuya, the County Disease Surveillance Coordinator, the current Measles outbreak which is the fourth wave this year was reported on May 17, 2025.

“As of today, there have been 47 Measles cases reported, nine of these cases are from Aroo Sub-County against the 38 cases reported in Loima sub-county. Children aged between nine months to five years are the most affected population comprising about 77%,” said Kuya.

The nomadic lifestyle prevalent in the region poses a significant exposure risk factor contributing to the spread of the disease as the population move from one location to another.

Amid a looming Measles outbreak, the sub-county health management team in Aroo teamed up and pro-actively acted fast, called for support and quickly defeated what would have been a fatal outbreak.

Led by the Aroo Sub-County Medical of Heath Officer Veronica Ereng, the team quickly got organized, raised an alarm and called on the County Government Health Management Team and partners to support and arrest the disease before it spread any further.

So, how did they do this?

The MOH first notified all the 17 facility in-charges and the whole sub-county health management team. This was followed by sensitization of the community health assistants, officers and promoters. The administration officers were also notified of the growing numbers.

Recourse mobilization was a key concern especially in distributing the vaccines to all the children and in preparedness, activate the cold chain system. The International Rescue Committee quickly offered fuel enabling a door-to-door service. At the time, out of the 17 health facilities, only eight had functional cold chain systems.

“Thanks to a previous arrangement between the County Government and UNHCR, we received nine new fridges. We took advantage of the fuel received from IRC to install the fridges in the remaining facilities. This made Aroo Sub-County 100% cold chain compliant,” said Ereng.

While the immunization was actively going on, the team also carried out defaulter tracing. A team of nurses was also constituted to initiate a mop-up of all the affected villages getting Vitamin A to all children within five days.

While this outbreak is still considered active, there have been no new Measles cases reported in Aroo Sub-County since June 4, 2025. This was when the last patient, a nine-month-old baby from Kadengoi, Kaakon village was discharged.

“Even without new cases, we still put all our health facilities on high alert to actively seek any active cases. We have not had any new cases reported. I am so proud of how effortlessly we have been working as a team which has made things much easier” added Ereng.

The MOH was however quick to share that with or without any reported cases, whenever there is a vaccination campaign, all children get immunized. This is whether they were immunized prior or not towards eliminating Measles completely.

According to Ereng, the outreaches are such a huge relief as they ensure no one is left behind. This includes the communities in the hard-to-reach locations who live very far away from the health facilities.

In addition to the active case search, the team heightened surveillance within the communities creating awareness on Measles. This was mainly to put the community in a position to quickly identify, and report suspected cases.

Story by: Esther Mwangi- Assistant Director, Public Communications and Media Relations