Cholera cases now at 434

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has said the number of cholera cases in the country has risen to  434 from 420 last week.

As of Friday last week, 14 new cholera cases were reported from three districts—five in Lilongwe, one in Rumphi and eight in Karonga. Currently, 26 patients are admitted to treatment centres in Lilongwe, Rumphi, Salima and Karonga districts.

Among some of the affected districts are Karonga, Kasungu, Dowa, Nkhata Bay, Lilongwe, Salima, Mulanje, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Likoma, Rumphi and Blantyre.

In an interview on Thursday, MoH spokesperson Joshua Malango told The Nation that the ministry is currently engaged in numerous interventions to help control outbreak, which has so far claimed six lives.

“Interventions remain the same which include community sensitisation through health education, provision of safe water and sanitary facilities, oral cholera vaccination which has been administered to about 600 000 people so far and training of health workers,” he said.

In his ministerial statement on cholera in Parliament on Friday, Minister of Health Atupele Muluzi expressed optimism that additional vaccines would help control the spread of the disease, particularly in high risk areas.

The first cholera case in the country was reported in Karonga on November 24 last year.