Karonga cholera outbreak kills 13

Cholera continues killing people in Karonga, with the death toll rising to 13 as of May 9 this year.

Currently,Karonga District Hospital (KDH) has appealed for assistance in form of transport from stakeholders for supervision in its five treatment sites around the district.

According to District environmental health officer for KDH Lewis Tukula, by April 29, the number of deaths from cholera was at seven, but it rose to 13 by May 9, with cases reported at Nyungwe, St.Annes, KDH and Kaporo treatment sites.

“From April 29 to May 12, the hospital registered 59 new cholera cases, making the total number of the outbreak cases to 206,” he said.

Tukula said in an e-mail that currently six patients are being treated in camps, four at St. Anne’s, one at KDH and one at Kaporo.

However, he expressed concern over inadequate fuel at the hospital and monitoring of response activities.

“A typical example was on May 8 when some centres like Mlare and Nyungwe required supplies that were supposed to be collected from Mzuzu.”

“However, by that time, the district health office had no fuel, and we are therefore appealing for assistance from stakeholders in order to rescue the situation,” said Tukula.

He added that apart from other equipment, the hospital is in much need of small cannulas.

“Yesterday, we received 1 500 big cannulas from the Central Medical Stores. However, small ones are also in high demand,” he said.

Having stayed for two months without registering any case, from January this year, KDH started registering suspected cases from March 27.

According to health officials, the major risk factors in the current cycle of the outbreak is drinking untreated water from Lake Malawi.