Rapid rise in cholera cases haunts govt

Ministry of Health has expressed fear that the rapid spread of cholera could see the country registering more cases and fatalities than the 2002 outbreak which was statistically the worst in nearly 25 years.

Malawi has so far recorded about 25 000 cases and 825 deaths since the current outbreak started in March last year with the first case was diagnosed last March in Machinga.

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Charles Mwansambo yesterday said the 2002 outbreak, had 33 000 cumulative cases.

“For the current one, we are at around 25 000, but still registering more cases… We may surpass the previous one,” he said.

Mwansambo said this in response to The Nation questionnaire on Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda’s earlier remarks that the current outbreak could be the worst.

And speaking in Lilongwe earlier yesterday when Good Neighbours International donated chlorine and masks to the ministry, the minister said more cases are being recorded despite the push to slow the spread.

She said: “The fight against cholera is far from over and the number of cases keeps growing by at least 500 per day.”

Chiponda called for resilience and adherence to preventive measures if the country is to reduce the trend.

Said the minister: “While the government, through my ministry in collaboration with partners and well-wishers, continues to mobilise resources to contain the outbreak, as a nation we need to increase our efforts at individual and community levels to avoid cholera and also further losses of lives.”

Meanwhile, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences public health and epidemiology professor Adamson Muula observed that the cholera situation has been worsened by disasters that hit the country recently.

“We are just coming out of cyclones that destroyed a lot of infrastructure and yet reconstruction has not been finalised. So, you end up with that sort of environment whereby toilets and water systems are still not functional,” he said.

Muula called for the need to do research on the cholera strain the country is battling with.

During the 2001/02 epidemic, 33 546 cases were recorded. Fatalities were pegged at 968, according to World Health Organisation records.

A study published on the United States government website https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, titled Cholera outbreaks in Malawi in 1998-2012, also established that the 2002 cholera outbreak was the worst since 1998.