Cholera has killed 28 people in Malawi since the onset of rains in October last year, a health official told AFP Thursday. Habib Somanje, controller of preventive health services said the death toll from the infectious water-borne disease had risen by
nine in one month.
The number of cases had shot up from 400 to 1,187 since January and cholera has so far been recorded in 20 of the country’s 28 districts, he added.
However, he said the cases recorded were far lower than the same period last year when health authorities registered around 20 000 cases.
Last year, 1,000 people died from cholera in the worst outbreak to hit the impoverished southern African country. Malawi has been bracing for a possible major cholera outbreak this year after torrential rains left over 20,000 people homeless in January, while widespread hunger from crop failures could leave
people more vulnerable to cholera and other diseases.
More than three million Malawians are threatened by famine this year.
Somanje said the country was prepared to handle 30 000 cases of cholera in 2003. However, he attributed a decline in cholera cases to a nationwide awareness campaign supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations.
Health officials are distributing chlorine to all villages in the country, where the majority of Malawi’s 11-million people do not have access to clean drinking water.
Cholera is characterised by diarrhoea, vomiting, muscle cramps and severe loss of body fluids. – Sapa-AFP