Ministry of Health warns of resurfacing of cholera as country keeps recording new cases

* Some people are not practicing hygiene standards and in a lot of areas toilets were destroyed during the floods

* We are meeting different local readers in order to help us in enforcing to people good healthy hygiene practices

By Natasha Kamoto, MANA

The country registered registered 1,937 new cases in the ending April alone — a worrying trend as just on Saturday, 21 new cases were recorded accompanied by one new related death.

The death was registered in Nsanje — bringing a cumulative confirmed cases at 58,381 and deaths at 1,754; at case fatality rate of 3.0% — while total number of people who recovered is at 56,567; with 60 in treatment centres.

Since the onset of the outbreak in March last year, Lilongwe has reported most cases — recorded at 12,742 with 588 deaths; followed by Blantyre (8,848/227); Mangochi (8497/124); Balaka (4,382/102); Salima (3,607/99); Machinga (2,416/86); Dedza (2,150/82);  Nkhata Bay (1,517/44); Nkhotakota (1,467/58); Chiradzulu (1,423/45); Ntcheu (1,359/50); Dowa (1,344/40); Thyolo (1,205/34); Rumphi (1,051/17); Karonga (964/25); and Mulanje (896/39).

Thus the Ministry of Health warns of a possibility of rising cholera cases due to poor hygiene and rise of water table as caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy-induced floods.

In an interview on Thursday with Malawi News Agency (MANA), Blantyre’s deputy district hospital officer, Ongan Mbale said while cholera cases have been decreasing, he sounded an alarm of high possibility of a rise in new numbers.

“Some people are not practicing hygiene standards and in a lot of areas toilets were destroyed during the floods that were caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy,” Mbale said. “If these are not addressed it will lead into a rise of Cholera cases.”

He said the Ministry is doing their level best in providing health education, chlorine and conducting discussions with local leaders in Blantyre on how to deal with the situation.

“We are meeting different local readers in order to help us in enforcing to people good healthy hygiene practices, following of all preventive measures and seeking of medical assistance early if there are signs of cholera.”

In separate interview, director of preventive health services in the Ministry, Dr. Storn Kabuluzi said government has put in place strategies to be followed such as washing of hands before handling food, practicing food hygiene and making sure that cholera vaccine is distributed.

“Reports indicate that 40% of households in the country do not have toilets and don’t follow good healthy hygiene,” he said. “So we want people to practice good healthy hygiene through various ways.”

He said in the last financial year, Malawi was hit hard by cholera, however, from April the cases have been going down from 700 daily reported cases to 35 daily reported.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express