Malawi has been identified as one of the African countries facing significant public health pressure due to multiple disease outbreaks, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) epidemic intelligence report.
The report dated December 10 2025 shows that some of the diseases Malawi is struggling with include Mpox, cholera and measles.
In a written response on Saturday, Ministry of Health and Sanitation spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said as of December 14 2025, Malawi had reported 144 Mpox cases, including one death, 93 cholera cases with two deaths and 419 measles cases since January this year.
He said most cholera cases were recorded between January and March and that the current cholera season, which runs from November 1 2025 to October 31 2026, only registered three confirmed cases, one each in Chitipa, Lilongwe and Balaka.
On measles, Chikumbe said sporadic cases do not necessarily constitute an outbreak unless there is evidence of community transmission.
He said: “What we are seeing are sporadic cases indicating the sensitivity of our surveillance system that allows for early detection of outbreaks.
“The Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with partners and other stakeholders is actively responding to the outbreaks through strengthened surveillance, rapid case detection and community-level interventions. Each disease has tailored preventive and response measures.”
Chikumbe said the ministry also continues to promote routine immunisation, including the first and second doses of the measles-rubella vaccine and that the targeted vaccination campaigns are planned for May 2026, as the country is yet to consistently achieve over 80 percent coverage for the second dose introduced in 2016.
Commenting on the matter, Malawi Health Equity Network executive director George Jobe said it was worrisome that Malawi continues to record multiple outbreaks which he said might be due to gaps in disease surveillance, low vaccination uptake, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene systems and limited preparedness investments.
He said: “To address this, we urge government and development partners to increase investments in routine immunisation, scale up community surveillance, improve water and sanitation, fund preparedness activities and enhance risk communication.
“Malawi must move from reactive response to stronger prevention and readiness.”
The Africa CDC report indicates that since January 2025, Africa has reported about 133 791 Mpox cases with 796 deaths, 313 879 cholera cases with 7 217 deaths and 152 544 measles cases.
