More than 1,200 people have died in the deadliest cholera outbreak in Malawi’s history and several other African nations have reported outbreaks, the World Health Organization said on Thursday calling for strong interventions.
Malawi has reported nearly 37,000 confirmed cases since March 2022 in its worst cholera outbreak on record.
Confirmed case have also been reported across the border in Mozambique, and the WHO said it assessed the current risk of spread inside Malawi and to other neighbouring countries as “very high”.
The WHO said in a statement on Thursday that active transmission was now ongoing in 27 out of Malawi’s 29 districts, with the country seeing a 143-percent increase in the number of cases last month compared to December.
“With a sharp increase of cases seen over the last month, fears are that the outbreak will continue to worsen without strong interventions,” WHO warned in a statement.
Since the outbreak began, Malawi has carried out two large vaccination campaigns, but due to limited supplies, has offered just one of the usually recommended two oral cholera vaccine doses.
In November, it received the second batch of almost three million doses from the UN, and last month a health ministry spokesman said all the doses had been used.
One billion at risk
The WHO said that 96.8 percent of Malawi’s population “residing in communities with high risk and burden of cholera” had been reached.
Cholera, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, is contracted from a bacterium that is generally transmitted through contaminated food or water.
Beyond vaccination, the WHO said that efforts were under way to improve sanitation and access to clean water, with house-to-house chlorination in affected communities and districts.
The UN health agency pointed out that the crisis in Malawi is occurring against a backdrop of surging cholera outbreaks worldwide, which have “constrained the availability of vaccines, tests and treatments”.
Some 80,000 cases were recorded on the African continent over the whole of 2022.
Malawi’s neighbour Zambia has also reported cases, as have Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Somalia.
“If the current fast-rising trend continues, it could surpass the number of cases recorded in 2021, the worst year for cholera in Africa in nearly a decade,” the WHO said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that there were currently 23 countries in the world experiencing cholera outbreaks, with a further 20 countries that share land borders with them at risk.
“In total, more than one billion people around the world are directly at risk of cholera,” he warned.
(with AFP)
