New Cholera cases reported in Southern Region
As Malawi continues to grapple with the Cholera outbreak, Ministry of Health (MoH) has confirmed new cases in Mulanje, Chikwawa and Nsanje districts, putting current number to 313.
According to figures from the Ministry of Health, four new cases have been recorded in Mulanje, other four in Nsanje and one in Chikwawa.
Karonga has no new case but cumulative cases from November 24, 2017 stand at 211 with one patient being treated in a camp at St. Anne’s Hospital. In Nkhata-Bay cumulative cases are at 20, Salima 10 while Lilongwe has 60 cases with two new admissions; the number of those being treated in a camp in Lilongwe is now at eight.
The statistics further indicates that Dowa has four cholera cases and Kasungu a single case.
MoH spokesperson Joshua Malango said all recorded cases were already treated with some patients out of their respective hospitals. He explained that a total of nine patients are still in camps and the number of deaths still stands at four.
“In Nsanje, some people went to the hospital for diarrhea and they were treated as normal diarrhea but samples which we took have shown positive results for cholera,” Malango said.
The ministry has insisted that the situation is under control.
“As you can see, the figures are going down in districts like Karonga which previously used to receive over 20 cases on a daily basis, now we are receiving five cases per day while some days we can go without recording any Cholera case,” he said.
Tanzania and Zambia are also grappling with Cholera forcing the latter to ban public gatherings including closures of schools and churches.
Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) Executive Director George Jobe earlier called on government to increase efforts and implement measures that will see to it that the disease is controlled other than wait for the situation to worsen.
He urged the Malawi government to borrow ideas from neighbouring countries on how they are tackling the disease citing Zambia which has banned hand shaking and public gatherings.
The outbreak from December 2015 to September 2016 claimed 58 lives with 1786 cases recorded.
