EU supports cholera fight with K582m

The European Union (EU) has once more supported Malawi’s fight against the cholera outbreak with an extra £540 000 (about K582 million) funding.

The assistance comes barely three months after the EU committed €100 000 (about K100 million) in September this year, to help in the fight.

In a statement dated November 30 2022, the EU says its partner United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) will use the funding to address the epidemic through a health operation aimed at reducing the mortality and the spread of the disease.

Reads the statement in part: “This action will include an emergency water and sanitation component in the affected areas.”

The September funding which was part of the EU’s overall contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund [DREF] of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [IFRC] was designed to reach over 753 000 people.

The funding supported the Malawi Red Cross Society in delivering assistance to prevent and control the spread of the outbreak in the four risk districts of Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Karonga and Mzuzu in a four-month project.

Malawi is grappling with a cholera outbreak since March this year when the first case was registered in Machinga.

As of December 6 2022, there were 194 new cases and seven deaths reported, bringing the total number of confirmed cases and deaths since the onset of the outbreak to 11 646, and 339 respectively in all 28 districts. The case Fatality Rate is at 2.9 percent.

Last week, the Ministry of Health, with support from the World Health Organisation, carried out the second round of cholera vaccination exercise this year in the 13 most hit districts.

Preliminary results show that 2 055 811 people were vaccinated out of the targeted 2 870 641, representing 71.6 percent coverage.

The country reported its largest outbreak from October 2001 to April 2002, which affected 26 of the 28 districts, with 33 546 cases and 968 deaths.