Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing financial support to the South African National Institute for Virology, in order to send a team of experts to Kenya to assist the Kenyan authorities in investigating the serious outbreak of Rift Valley viral/haemorrhagic fever following heavy rains and floods in that country.
It was decided to provide this assistance following a request in this regard from the Kenyan medical authorities and the World Health Organisation in Geneva.
The team from the Institute for Virology, consisting of five specialist volunteer scientists and clinicians under the leadership of Prof R Swanepoel, is scheduled to leave for Nairobi today.
The team intends to do an IN SITU investigation from the Garissa operations base in association with local and international epidemiologists and clinicians already there. They will spend about a week doing field investigations, and collecting specimens to be sent back to South Africa for testing in specialist laboratories.
The above-mentioned assistance is a reflection of the commitment of the South African Government to cooperate with fellow African countries in eradicating infectious diseases on our continent and thus ensuring a better quality of life for all its inhabitants.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 5 FEBRUARY 1998