Mzuzu City Council (MCC) has embarked on a cholera prevention campaign to protect residents from an outbreak that has affected two districts in the Northern Region.
Speaking when Plan International and Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) handed over communal water points at Dunduzu, Mzuzu City deputy mayor Alexander Mwakikunga urged residents to practise “high levels of hygiene” to prevent the highly infectious sanitation-related diarrhoeal disease.
He said the council is on high alert following outbreaks in Nkhata Bay and Karonga districts which are close to the city.
Mwakikunga asked people to stop eating and selling ready-made food.
“You don’t know how such food was prepared and how it was handled on the way to town. You don’t know what happens on the way. We should avoid taking and selling food that is cold and unhygienic,” he said.
Plan programme manager (North) Foster Mkandawire requested NRWB to provide steady water supply across the region to ensure people in cholera-prone areas drink safe water all the time.
According to the Ministry of Health, the country has registered 228 cases and four deaths since the onset of the outbreak in Karonga last November. All the death occurred in the district.
The ministry has warned of a potential cholera outbreak in 16 of the country’s 28 districts.
NRWB internal audit manager Andrew Mhone said the water board will ensure people have water every day. n
