The Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Cholera has declared 27 out of the country’s 28 districts cholera free after going over 14 days without registering any cases.
In an interview yesterday, Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Cholera co-chairperson Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma said Nsanje is the only district yet to put under control the sanitation and hygiene-related disease.
However, he expressed hope that Malawi might soon control the outbreak as Nsanje had gone about 12 days without registering any new cholera case.
Said Nkhoma: “Nsanje has not yet reached the 14-day cut-off point. They reported the last cholera case on the 11th June [2024] and we have to wait and see what happens to Nsanje in the next two to three days.
“We are in a good situation in terms of the continuing spread of cholera, because even with Nsanje, we are getting maybe one case in a week, but those cases are not multiplying even within their own [infected] families. That gives us hope that generally, the practices that people are adopting are helping to keep the cases in check.”
Commenting on the matter, Malawi University of Science and Technology Academy of Medical Sciences head of biological sciences Dr. Gama Bandawe said it is a positive development considering that for the past two years, there were cholera outbreaks throughout the year.
He expressed hope that the country will reach a situation where cholera cases are not recorded all year around.
“Definitely it’s a big step forward compared to where we come from where we were registering high numbers of cholera cases throughout the year in the multiple districts. But I think there is still some work to do in terms of getting us cholera free,” said Bandawe.
According to Nkhoma, since the onset of the 2023/24 rainy season in November, the country recorded 283 cases and three deaths. Out of the cumulative cholera cases, 78 were imported, mostly from Mozambique.
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