Ministry of Health and Sanitation has said the country will need K3.78 billion (about $2.1million) to implement a three-month plan to prevent Ebola through detection, confirmation and prompt response.
The plan, covering the period June to August, outlines a comprehensive, multisectoral and coordinated framework aimed at enhancing surveillance, strengthening diagnostic capacity and ensuring timely response actions while promoting collaboration among key stakeholders to effectively prevent, identify, and contain possible outbreaks.
Reads the report: “The immediate preparedness activities will be implemented over a period of three months, from June to August 2026. The Ministry of Health and Sanitation through Phim [Public Health Institute of Malawi] will provide oversight and stewardship in the implementation of this plan.
in Lilongwe. | Malawi News Agency
“The total budget for the plan for three months is estimated at K3 781 667 969 [$2 159 719].”
Key priorities include strengthened coordination and leadership mechanisms, enhanced surveillance, reporting, and laboratory diagnostic capacity, improved infection prevention, control, and case management systems and intensified risk communication and community engagement initiative.
The report further notes that border districts such as Chitipa, Karonga, Mchinji, Dedza, and Mwanza are considered particularly vulnerable because of significant cross-border movement and trade activities.
It further forecasts that urban centres including Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu may face additional risk due to international travel, returning peacekeepers and other mobile populations. Dowa faces heightened risk due to asylum seekers destined for Dzaleka camp.
In a commentary on the plan, Secretary for Health and Sanitation Dan Namarika said this effort is crucial not only to prevent and control potential Ebola outbreaks but also to advance global health security.
He said a well-coordinated response involving all stakeholders, from government ministries to international partners, is essential to protecting public health, adding, the ministry has taken proactive steps to bolster national preparedness by developing the plan.
In June, the World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed satisfaction with Malawi’s preparedness to prevent the Ebola public health threat.
WHO country representative Dr Charles Njuguna expressed the sentiments when he accompanied Minister of Health and Sanitation Madalitso Baloyi on an inspection tour of screening for Ebola at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe.
WHO also supplied Ebola-specific personal protective equipment and medical kits to the Malawi government worth $73 000 to strengthen the country’s response capability in the event of an outbreak.
