Malaria claims 55 children in Chikwawa since January
Records from Chikwawa District Hospital indicate that malaria has claimed the lives of 28 children below the age of five between January and March 2015, with a further 27 children of above that age also losing their lives to the disease during the same period.
In a bid to contain the situation, Chikwawa District Malaria Officer, Gerald Nakoma has urged various stakeholders to join hands to curb the deaths from the disease.
Nakoma attributed the problem to cases of complicated malaria which involve severe anaemia.
Said Nakoma: “More people need to donate blood, because if we have little or no blood in our banks, a lot of people die from malaria. We need aggressive advocacy so that people appreciate the need to donate blood and become determined and passionate to save lives.”
He urged stakeholders to mobilise people to donate more blood so that lives are saved in the district.
He said: “Most of the times we depend on students who donate more blood than people in the industry. But this time around we are urging the working class to have a sense of responsibility when it comes to blood donation.”
In a related development, Support for Service Delivery Integration SSDI, with support from United States Agency International Development (USAid) is conducting district outreach campaigns in Mulanje called Moyo ndi Mpamba in malaria, nutritious food, blood donation, good hygiene and testing as well as safe motherhood.
In 2013, 79 children below the age of five lost their lives in the district while 96 died in 2014. During the same period in 2013, Malaria claimed 76 lives of children above the age of five, while 81 such deaths occurred in 2014.
