The community volunteers of Mkali Village
* Mkali Village people are containing cholera starting from guarding the lake and for banning the use of lake water for domestic use
* People along the lakeshore encouraged to emulate Mkali Village initiative to contain the cholera.p outbreak
By Evance Chisiano & Hanleck Mkumba, MANA
A local committee in Mangochi formed a voluntary Lake Malawi beach guard and patrol team to stop the use of the lake for domestic purposes as a way of containing the spread of cholera following increased cases of the disease in the area.
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The initiative by the committee — comprising community policing members, village health committee and beach village committee at Group Village Head (GVH) Chimatiro in Mangochi impressed a Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 and Cholera that visited Mangochi on Saturday to appreciate how the District Health Office and partners responded to cholera outbreak.
Members of the Taskforce, Innocencia Chirombo, Deliwe Chipeta and Dr. Ben Chilima — from Public Health Institute of Malawi — hailed Mangochi District Health Office for coordinating well with partners and community level structures in responding to the cholera outbreak.
The Presidential Task force on COVID-19 and Cholera was particularly impressed with community initiative on the disease outbreak’s response at Mkali Village where the beach guards and patrol team were providing chlorine to households.
Chirombo said: “I’m very happy with what the people of Mkali Village are doing to contain cholera starting from guarding the lake and for banning the use of lake water for domestic use” and called on people along the lakeshore to emulate what people at Mkali Village were doing on their own to contain cholera.
Most cases of cholera in Mangochi were recorded at T/A Mponda’s area such that a cholera treatment facility was set up at Mkali Village where volunteers provided support to health workers where others distributed chlorine in the village.
Mangochi District Council environmental health officer, Dr. Kondwani Mamba said cholera cases were dropping following mass chlorination, enhanced case management and community engagement in responding to the outbreak on top of support from partners in provision of medical supplies and tents for treatment units closer to where cholera cases were identified.
The first cholera case was identified at Sister Martha Health Facility at Namwera and the case was believed to have arrived through a boat from Karonga and later another case from Balaka was identified at Chilipa followed by serial cases at Koche, Mkali, around Mangochi Boma and M’baluku areas.
“Our main risk is the use of the lake by communities along the lake but we managed to find a way to control this,” Mamba said, adding that the cases were on the decline in most hotspots.
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Key partners supporting Mangochi DHO in many ways to respond to cholera include World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Food Programme, World Vision Malawi, Medicines San Frontiers, United Purpose, Oxfam (in partnership with Catholic Development Commission in Malawi), Evidence Action, Family Planning Association of Malawi, Malawi Red Cross Society, Titukulane Project, Momentum and Catholic Relief Services, among others.
“Our target is to register no cholera case by January 31, 2023,” Mamba said, as the district continues to collaborate with partners in administration of oral cholera caccination currently reaching out to 170,318 out of the target of 185,000.
According to Dr. Henry Chibowa Jnr, from the onset Mangochi recorded 3, 806 cases with76 deaths.
A community member at Mkali Village, Edwin Magetsi said the community initiative has helped to bring down cholera cases in the area, pledging that the committee would continue to guard and patrol the beaches to minimize lake use until Mangochi and other areas record zero-cholera cases.
“Beach guarding and patrols are our own initiatives after observing that there was unregulated use of the lake,” he said.
Nice initiative indeed