Starving in the midst of plenty
Cholera, which had killed over 1 023 as of January 26 2023, is a huge menace and those ignoring it are only doing so at their peril. They are also not helping the country. The bad news is that as a killer, the disease is soon likely to overtake Covid-19 if strong measures are not taken to stop the spread of the disease.
This underscores the need for government to partner with all its development partners, civil society and the private sector to stop the disease from spreading.
Cholera cases have risen to 31 241, the highest on record as the country suffers its worst outbreak in 20 years. The death toll of 1 023 is a cumulative figure from October 2022 when the outbreak was first reported in the country. The death toll surpassed the largest recorded outbreak which killed 968 people between 2001 and 2002. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Most of the deaths occurred in the two cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre where children went back to class after schools delayed opening to try and contain the spread.
In Malawi cholera cases are usually recorded from the outset of the rainy season, which is from November or December to March. But the current outbreak started in October along the lakeshore district of Nkhata Bay. It then spread to more lakeshore districts before getting to all districts now. And it is spreading with menace.
My fear and hopefully that of many is that the outbreak would soon surpass Covid-19 in its death toll. WHO reports that 6 876 deaths have been reported since Covid-19 was first reported in January 2020 in Malawi from 88 349 cases.
Comparatively cholera has, on average, killed more people in the four months since it was first reported than did Covid-19 during the same period. With figures rising daily, the cholera outbreak is far from being tamed. If 1 023 people have died of cholera in just four months, and if the current average death toll of 21 per day continues, by October this year, the death toll will hit 7 300. And that will be a catastrophe.
There are a lot of questions. Why a cholera outbreak in October? Has government done enough to arrest the outbreak? What interventions did it put in place? Were people properly sensitized about the cause of the outbreak and how they could prevent its spread?
More questions. When the outbreak continued to spread, what extra measures did government put in place to stop it? Where or what did it not do in the first place for the outbreak to continue after the first intervention? Have people done their part to protect themselves?
All indications though are that government is doing all it can to stop the carnage. There is a robust vaccination campaign across the country. Those who are not skeptical are getting the vaccine. Lives are being saved. Unfortunately, there is a culture among Malawians of not hearkening to government’s call for such initiatives. We saw this on the Covid-19 vaccination response. To date, only 4.1 million vaccine doses have been administered against the 7.2 million doses that Malawi has received. As if that is not bad enough only 2 million Malawians or 10.3 percent of the population have fully been vaccinated. The targeted population is 13.8 million. This data from the Multilateral Leaders Task Force Report on Covid-19 is demoralizing.
But such is the sad story about Malawi. Sometimes we have everything we need to save the day but by-in from the critical masses is just not there. People are dying not because there are no remedies but because of some retrogressive beliefs. Apart from continuing to mobilize resources, government’s main challenge with vaccination campaigns has been convincing the targeted population who are the main beneficiaries of the campaign to embrace them.
