Kenya Medical Research Institute was bribed with Sh100 million to backtrack on Influenza outbreak by the US Government, sources have revealed.
The money which was wired to the accounts of top KEMRI and Ministry of health officials was to fund silence on the outbreak. Influenza outbreak is meant to be covered as COVID-19 so as to attract donor funding.
KEMRI’s announcement was interfering with that plan.
The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) has rubbished reports viral reports of an alleged outbreak of influenza in the country.
The local media, mid this week, carried reports that KEMRI had detected an Influenza outbreak.
Calls were made to KEMRI to pull down those reports and in a few hours, they denied their own report.
KEMRI, in a statement to newsrooms on Friday, termed the reports carried by a section of local media as incorrect and only serving to cause unnecessary panic to members of the public.
We wish to state the following in regard to a story published on the local media & circulated on social media platforms
We advice Kenyans to continue exercising high standards of personal hygiene & visit their local health providers as a preventive measure
Kindly read through⤵️ pic.twitter.com/2yrtNKvOcd
— Kenya Medical Research Institute (@KEMRI_Kenya) December 17, 2021
The research body said it tested 36 samples over three months from September to November this year in what it termed as its usual surveillance exercise.
From the said samples, KEMRI stated, only 4 tested positive for flu; the State body hence termed this outcome as too insignificant to warrant the declaration of an influenza outbreak.
“On average, the four positive tests within a three-month period may equate to nearly one positive case per month which does not reach the threshold of an influenza outbreak,” said KEMRI.
“Past outbreaks have involved higher percentage of cases being positive. In one incident, 150 samples testing positive from a sample of 250 and another case 14 out of 20 samples tested positive.”
According to KEMRI, a number of people having the flu at any given time is not considered an outbreak and is, matter of factly, expected since studies show that influenza viruses circulate all year.
“Indeed, previous studies have shown that Kenya records two peaks following rainy seasons. In our opinion, the information above is not sufficient to declare this as an outbreak,” stated the research body.
“Having said that, a single case of an Ebola virus or poliovirus infection is always considered an outbreak due to the severity of these infections or the virus’s eradication status, but this is not the case for influenza virus infections especially in the tropics.”
KEMRI further stated: “Overall, the public should therefore not panic about the reported ‘outbreak’ of influenza but should instead exercise higher standards of personal hygiene including hand washing, not crowding, eating healthy and visit your local health provider as preventive measures.”
The Sh100 million will be used by top managers and also fund some of KEMRI’s functions.
