By Wezzie Gausi, Thomas Kachere & Feston Malekezo:
The Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus and Cholera has declared that cholera is no longer a public health emergency in Malawi.
This follows a review the committee conducted on the cholera situation.
A letter, which taskforce co-chairperson Khumbidze Kandodo Chiponda has signed, indicates that the country has been battling with the cholera outbreak since February 2022.
The outbreak was declared a public health emergency by President Lazarus Chakwera on December 5 2022.
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“As of August 3 2023, a total of 58,979 cholera cases, including 1,768 deaths, have been reported. The cholera trend in Malawi has continued to show [a] decline in new cases and deaths over the past three months.
“There is now significant reduction in the number of cases and deaths being reported and 26 out of 29 health districts have controlled the outbreak,” Kandodo Chiponda says.
She adds that the remaining three districts are intermittently reporting less than five cases per day.
Meanwhile, health rights advocate Maziko Matemba has said what has happened is progress in the fight against cholera.
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He, however, said people should continue observing all hygiene routines so as to deal with the outbreak completely.
“People should not relent but continue taking care of themselves,” Matemba said.
The Ministry of Health has since reassessed the grading for the cholera outbreak from level three to level one and has declared that cholera is no longer a national public health emergency.
It has also changed its strategy from daily reporting of cholera cases to weekly reporting, further committing to continue implementing cholera prevention and control measures until the outbreak is over in the 29 health districts of the country.
Last week, Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said the country was working with neighbouring countries in efforts to keep cholera at bay.
He cited Mozambique and Zambia as some of the countries they have been working with.
Chikumbe also said the ministry was aware that some cases were reported in Zomba, Blantyre, Chikwawa and Nsanje between July and August this year.
“All we need to do at the moment is to continue upholding high levels of hygiene and sanitation to sustain the gains we have made in managing cholera,” Chikumbe said.
In another development, a multi-country report on the outbreak of cholera by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that the capacity to respond to multiple and simultaneous outbreaks continues to be strained due to the shortage of supplies, as well as overstretched public health and medical personnel in most countries, Malawi inclusive.
Based on the large number of outbreaks and their geographic expansion, as well as a lack of vaccines and other resources, WHO says it continues to assess the risk at global level as very high.
According to WHO, the African region remains the most affected region, with 14 countries reporting cholera cases since the beginning of the year.
The report indicates that, in case of any outbreak, Malawi could be hit hard if no interventions are set in readiness for any disease.
“The overall capacity to respond to the multiple and simultaneous outbreaks continues to be strained due to the global lack of resources, including shortages of the Oral Cholera Vaccine and cholera supplies, as well as overstretched public health and medical personnel, who are dealing with multiple parallel disease outbreaks and other health emergencies,” the report reads.
Meanwhile, the report has indicated that countries such as Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa appear to have stabilised in recent weeks.
To strengthen the strides, nine experts have been deployed to Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya and Haiti to support the cholera response, for the functions of health operations, case management, social anthropology and epidemiology.
