U.S. gives Kenya aid to fight infectious disease
Source: Reuters
NAIROBI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The United States has given Kenya $172,000 worth of vaccines to innoculate livestock against the animal-borne Rift Valley Fever that has killed at least 74 people, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi said on Wednesday.
"This donation is being made to assist where human lives are being lost due to this terrible disease and where there has been a major social and economic impact," the embassy said. The vaccines were for 450,000 animals.
The highly contagious viral disease is spread from animals to humans through mosquito bites and handling of contaminated animal fluids. Victims normally vomit blood or bleed to death.
The deaths in Kenya have been largely in the North Eastern Province and a few in the Coast Province.
Most of the dead are nomadic herdsmen that move with their stock from place to place in the remote north-eastern region in search of water and pasture.
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