What is healthcare in Kenya like?

Facilities and Health Information

Adequate medical services are available in Nairobi. Frequent outbreaks of cholera and malaria are endemic in Kenya outside Nairobi. In addition, diseases such as Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, and anthrax from handling sheep skins occur periodically. Travelers, who become ill with a fever or flu-like illness while traveling in a malaria-risk area, and up to one year after returning home, should seek prompt medical attention and tell the physician their travel history and what anti-malarial drugs they have been taking. For additional information on malaria, protection from insect bites, and anti-malarial drugs, please visit the CDC Travelers' Health web site.

Tuberculosis is an increasingly serious health concern in Kenya. For further information, please consult the CDC's Information on TB.

On May 17, the CDC issued a Travel Notice regarding an outbreak of dengue in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city and a major tourist destination. Dengue is spread by mosquitoes, and travelers to Kenya’s coastal areas should plan to protect themselves from mosquito bites through covering exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats, and using insect repellent as directed on the packaging. For more information on dengue, please visit the CDC web page on dengue.

The CDC issued a Travel Notice on June 3, regarding the recent diagnosis of polio in Kenya. All travelers to Kenya and surrounding countries should be fully vaccinated against polio. In addition, adults previously vaccinated as children should receive a one-time booster dose of polio vaccine.

Drinking Water Source - % of rural population improved

55.1%

Drinking Water Source - % of total population unimproved

38.3%

Drinking Water Source - % of urban population improved

improved: urban: 91.3% of population

rural: 63.3% of population

total: 71.2% of population

unimproved: urban: 8.7% of population

rural: 36.7% of population

total: 28.8% of population

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

6.3%

Hospital Bed Density - beds/1,000 population

1.4

People Living with HIV/AIDS

1,500,000

Physicians Density - physicians/1,000 population

.16

Sanitation Facility Access - % of total population unimproved

70.4%

Sanitation Facility Access - % of urban population improved

improved: urban: 84% of population

rural: 48.1% of population

total: 58.2% of population

unimproved: urban: 16% of population

rural: 51.9% of population

total: 41.8% of population

Sanitation Facility Access - % of rural population improved

29.1%

Infectious Diseases - degree of risk

degree of risk: very high

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, and sexually transmitted diseases: HIV/AIDS

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies

note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Israel is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Animal Contact Disease (s)

rabies

Food or Waterborne Disease (s)

bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

Vectorborne Disease (s)

malaria, dengue fever, and Rift Valley fever

Water contact disease (s)

schistosomiasis