When Raphael Nyaruaba got a scholarship to study in China, he knew he was just part of hundreds of lucky Kenyan students training under the Sino-Africa Joint Research Centre, Beijing’s programme to enhance science research cooperation.
But, somehow, he expected that the nature of his profession — medical microbiology — would one day plunge him in the middle of a health emergency.
Since the start of January, Mr Nyaruaba, an alumnus of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), has been part of a group of dedicated researchers poring over coronavirus, to learn how to tame it.
The virus, whose emergency was confirmed early this month, has seen Wuhan City — the headquarters of China’s Hebei province — on a lockdown as authorities try to prevent it from spreading elsewhere.
The authorities are centred at Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Mr Nyaruaba is on the team trying to get answers for the scientific community there.
“I wasn’t deployed but I am studying. When asked to help, we all answered the call,” he told the Nation by phone.
“It is the least we can do,” he said referring to the work at the Institute which has become the main reference centre of the province and the entire China.
Mr Nyaruaba went to China in 2017 after completing his internship at Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) in Nairobi. Part of his studies have involved research on viral detection and what scientists call ”isolation”, the actual identification of specific strains.
“Since the current outbreak, we have been hands-on, trying to help as much as we can,” he says.
Coronaviruses, according to the WHO, are a group of viruses that cause diseases in humans, other mammals and birds, causing respiratory infections that often appear like common colds with mild symptoms such as fever and coughs but which may kill on occasion.
The WHO says the viral effect of coronavirus is likened to others such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars); all of which, when they emerged, caused a near shutdown of the areas of origin.
The virus has seen effects go far beyond the epicentre in Wuhan. Kenya, for instance, announced it was on high alert as there is at least a dozen people arriving into the country from China every day.
The US, Japan and South Korea have also been alerted of a possible spread.
As is the situation with every medical emergency, the city in question can be on a lockdown. Chinese authorities announced last week there will be no departures for residents, creating fear of possible food shortages. Some foreign embassies have planned to relocate their residents while the Kenyan embassy in Beijing says it was monitoring the situation to determine the next step.
For Mr Nyaruaba, though, the incidence is giving him double responsibility: He is vice-president of the Kenyans in Wuhan Association.
“We are currently asking Kenyans to always keep us updated about their condition and where they are. So far, most of them are safe,” he said referring to his compatriots in Wuhan, most of them scientists on scholarship.
Much of the work Mr Nyaruaba is doing about the virus in the lab is classified, so he wouldn’t discuss it with the Nation. However, he did say the emergency, like any other in the world, has required long hours of study and tests on the possible ways of taming the spread of the virus.
But there are lessons for his home country. A specialist in arboviruses (the group of viruses spread through some insects, but which can be deadly to humans), he says Kenya and peers in the region need to be on the look-out.
“That is my passion. I studied more on arboviruses during my internship at KEMRI. I got to learn about various viruses and their outbreaks in Kenya. And I would love to help prevent such outbreaks in future and help my country to plan for better emergency responses.
“Uganda and Kenya are notorious for such, like the Yellow Fever outbreak (last week). I hope Kenya is doing much in monitoring the coronavirus especially since there are a lot of people coming to Kenya from China. Some may have come from the recent holiday.”
He recently wrote a paper on “a review of medically important mosquito-borne arboviruses”, in which he and other researchers, Caroline Mwaliko, Matilu Mwau, Samar Mousa and Hongping Wei, concluded that the East African region is vulnerable.
“The future spread of mosquito-borne arboviruses from country to country within the EAC may be facilitated with the rapid expansion in trade, transport and fluctuating environmental conditions,” they observed in the recent edition of Pathogens and Global Journal.
“We, therefore, recommend that the EAC governing structure make it a priority to increase vigilance of the spread of mosquito vectors and also monitor the introduction/spread of new arboviruses within the EAC.
The region has in the past faced emergencies of Rift Valley, Dengue, Yellow Fever, Ntaya, Usitu, Zika, Chikungunya and Ndumu viruses.
Meanwhile, Nyaruaba’s family back in Kenya keeps praying for him, that he doesn’t get infected in the fire fighting.