Unicef works to defeat cholera

When severe storms hit Malemia Village in Nchalo, Chikwawa earlier this year, the muddy pit toilets collapsed.

Soon after, a cholera outbreak was recorded and quickly spread through the village, taking the lives of seven people.

But instead of being deterred, the people of Malemia regrouped as the village chief took it upon himself to educate people on how to protect themselves from the deadly disease.

“My village has 163 households. I was walking door-to-door, making sure that everyone built a toilet to curb the spread of the disease,” says Chief Lomasi.

The chief explained that the outbreak occurred because the village lacked proper latrines and people were often forced to defaecate in the open.

“There were only few toilets in my area. During rainy season, a lot of them were damaged,” he said.

After a series of flooding events, including Tropical Storm Ana, Malawi recorded more than 1 000 cholera cases in eight districts.

A high case fatality rate of 4.9 percent was consistently reported, with 43 reported deaths.

At the same time, almost one million people, including 130 000 children, were displaced and moved to camps.

With support from the Global Thematic Fund, United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has worked with the government to implement a coordinated response to the cholera outbreak.

Response strategies include case management, risk communication, community engagement and surveillance.

Water, sanitation and hygiene intervention have focused on water treatment at the household-level, and safe waste disposal, as well as the delivery of critical supplies.

Through the Global Thematic Fund, Unicef has also worked with  Centre for Development Communications to raise awareness at community level about proper sanitation and hygiene practices.

The centre’s project manager Regson Namatumba said the situation was dire in Malemia and other surrounding areas.

“So as part of our behaviour change campaign, we have been responding through personal communication, community dialogue and community mobilisation,” he said.

“We also use cinema where the village head and local health workers watch the movies together with the community. At the end, they sit down and draw up a workplan on what they can do.”

As a result of the interventions, Namatumba says there have been remarkable advances in controlling the disease.

“People have started building pit latrines with hand-washing stations, as well as rubbish pits.”

Malawi received 1.9 million doses of oral cholera vaccine from the Global Emergency Stockpile for the first round of vaccination campaign.