* While progress has been made in several thematic areas of environmental health, many challenges persist
* As Secretary for Health, Samson Mndolo emphasizes the critical role of district environmental health offices
By Fostina Mkandawire, MANA
At a review meeting in Salima yesterday, chief preventive officer for Mangochi District, Chimwemwe Jella, highlighted that while progress has been made in several thematic areas of environmental health, many challenges persist.
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“These diseases continue to strain our already limited resources, the population keeps growing, but the number of healthcare workers, especially health surveillance assistants (HSAs), has not kept pace.
“This imbalance affects the delivery of essential preventive services,” said Jella while stressing the importance of recruiting more HSAs to bridge the gap between population needs and service delivery — especially in rural and underserved areas.
He observed that a significant blow has come from recent funding cuts by the United States government, which had been a major supporter of Malawi’s public health initiatives.
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“These funding cuts have a ripple effect across our programs,” he said. “We urge both domestic and international partners to continue supporting our health systems.
“Without their assistance, we risk reversing the gains we have made in disease prevention and response,” he said.
Present was Secretary for Health, Samson Mndolo, who emphasised the critical role of district environmental health offices (DEHOs) in preventing disease outbreaks — pleading for greater investment and support amid mounting public health challenges.
Samson Mndolo
Mndolo said the review meeting was aimed at assessing progress made in the past year, sharing lessons learned, and identifying priority areas for improvement — especially with the recent Mpox outbreak.
“District environmental health officers are at the forefront of preventing and responding to public health threats. Strengthening their capacity is not just a necessity, it is a national priority,” he said.
Participants to the meeting, which was supported by World Health Organisation, shared best practices and strategies for integrating community involvement, improving surveillance systems, and bolstering emergency response mechanisms.
Meanwhile, Chikwawa District Hospital environmental health officer, Chifundo Kika has sounded an alarm over the growing threat of communicable diseases linked to climate change effects.
A report by MBCDigital says when presenting data from 2019 to 2024, Kika revealed that of the 14 traditional authorities with a population of 653,240 and 161 households, a total of 11 traditional authorities were impacted by climate-related disasters.
Kika stated that climate change shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, caused by natural activities like solar radiation variations and human activities like deforestation have led to droughts, heatwaves, floods and strong winds.
In October 2024, strong winds devastated GVH Mpheza, Khundu, and T/A Katunga. Cyclone Freddy further compounded the problem, contributing to an increased number of cholera outbreak cases.
To mitigate the challenges, the district is planning to develop a multi-hazard plan, conduct community awareness campaign on climate change and health, and provide training for emergency responders and rapid response teams.
However, an environmental analysts observes that Kika presented “is quite worrisome because these disease episodes are not — and cannot — be taken as new to the targeted areas and cannot be taken as a result of issues of climate change”.
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“These are endemic to the Lower Shire Valley for which the district environmental health office should have ready data for — as frequent occurring diseases in that particular area as such ought to have appropriate ‘Drugs of Choice’ and their general ones as well to mitigate their spiral.
“This district environmental health officer has to dig deeper and not giving such stories to the media which otherwise could not be taken lightly by some senior officers in the Ministry and those outside.
“How could he, now, be saying after all those cyclones that pulverised the same locality for some years now and yet didn’t develop that so called multi-hazard plan they now have today — it doesn’t add up surely,” he observed.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
