Govt blames cholera rise on superstition

Ministry of Health (MoH) has said superstitions are to blame for escalating cholera cases and deaths in the country, but the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has attributed the outbreak to lack of potable water in most urban and peri-urban areas.

According to MoH, as of Tuesday, the  cholera death toll had risen to 10 while cumulative cholera cases from at least 13 districts are now at 546.

Speaking in an interview with The Nation yesterday, Ministry of Health (MoH) spokesperson Joshua Malango said the interventions from the government and other stakeholders have not been as effective as expected because people have been negligent after spotting signs of the disease.

“It is not that we haven’t taken the messages to the people. Our main challenge is that people go to the hospitals late. Some even go to private clinics and by the time they realise it is cholera, it is too late as was the case in Salima where the patient was brought in seven hours later and was pronounced dead on arrival,” he said.

Malango said some people, including chiefs, take traditional herbs and concoctions believing cholera is caused by witchcraft.

He added: “The main problem is that some communities have associated the outbreak with superstitious beliefs such as witchcraft. People believe that if they get some concoctions they will get healed.”

Karonga and Lilongwe districts have been hit the most by the outbreak, registering four and five deaths, respectively, while one death wa recorded in Salima.

Out of the 546 cholera incidents, Karonga has recorded 277, Lilongwe 164, Salima 44, Nkhata Bay 20, Likoma 13, Rumphi nine, Nsanje six, Dowa five, Mulanje four and one each for Kasungu, Dedza, Blantyre and Chikwawa districts.

In his remarks, Unicef country representative Johannes Wedenig yesterday attributed the rise in cases to lack of access to potable drinking water in most urban and peri-urban areas.

He said this when the agency donated four bladders of water to communities of Mitengo in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalumba’s area in Lilongwe, where 16 people have been affected by cholera.

Wedenig said the epidemic has become a serious health hazard in the country because most communities living in urban and rural areas do not have access to potable water.

“Unicef believes that this is primarily caused by unsafe water and poor hygiene practices. Tests have shown that all open wells and many boreholes in Lilongwe City are contaminated, especially this area where we have learnt that all the water is contaminated,” he said.

Wedenig said Unicef donated the bladders, with a capacity of 500 litres, to improve access to potable water while Lilongwe District Council and Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) were working to connect the areas to piped water.

On the other hand, Blantyre district environmental health officer Penjani Chunda told delegates at a media orientation workshop in Blantyre yesterday that although Blantyre City Council remains alert to the outbreak, it could face challenges containing the disease considering they are running out of essential sanitation supplies.

But in an interview yesterday Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) executive director George Jobe faulted government for putting the blame on the people, saying the fact that more people are dying in the communities shows that government needs to scale up its communications interventions.

“It is time to flood the country with cholera messages. We have to go local. Let us use the chiefs, church gatherings and other forms that people in villages use to communicate,” he said.

The outbreak started in Karonga after some two businesspersons were infected in Tanzania, where there is also an outbreak.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cholera  is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food and water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. The disease can lead to dehydration and even death if left untreated. n