37 cholera cases recorded in 14 days

Malawi has recorded 13 new cholera cases, including one death, in a fresh wave that has hit Mzimba District as the rainy season is in its infant stage.

So far, 37 cases have been recorded in the fresh wave.

Mzimba South district director of health and social services Dr Prince Chirwa said in an interview that 10 of the new cases have been treated as out-patients.

He said they suspect that the disease was imported by one of the patients who recently travelled to Mwanza District recently.

Said Chirwa: “We received 13 cases of cholera at Section 10 from the Jenda Trading Centre area from November 10 this year.

“Ten of the patients have been treated at Jenda Health Centre as out-patients. However, one of them died at home. Currently, we are remaining with two patients who are still receiving medical care at the hospital.”

He said the district has since intensified preventive and control measures to stop the further spread of the disease at Jenda Trading Centre and Mzimba South District as a whole.

The 13 new cases in Mzimba mean Malawi has now recorded 37 cases, including three deaths in the past two weeks, according to data from the Malawi Public Health Institute.

According to the institute, apart from Mzimba, other districts affected include Nsanje with seven cases, Karonga with six cases and one death reported, Ntcheu has five cases; Thyolo has four cases while Mulanje and Balaka have recorded one case each.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe confirmed the 37 cases, including three deaths.

He earlier said to contain the further spread of the disease, the government was raising awareness on cholera prevention in districts nationwide and distributing cholera supplies such as chlorine for water treatment.

Health rights activist Maziko Matemba said the Ministry of Health needs to have enough resources to ably fight cholera in the country.

But Ministry of Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Elias Chimulambe assured yesterday that the ministry will continue with its programmes to provide piped water in cholera hotspot areas.

“We have programmes targeting hotspot areas and districts to supply safe piped water and boreholes. We are encouraging individuals to practice and observe good hygiene practises.

Since March 2022 when the first case was recorded in Machinga District, Malawi has recorded over 59 015 cholera cases and 1 772 deaths from the pandemic that affected all 28 districts.