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Worst cholera outbreak in decades kills 750 people

Published:Friday | January 13, 2023 | 12:47 AM
A health worker takes a cholera vaccine at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, central Malawi, on Wednesday. Malawi’s health minister says the country’s worst cholera outbreak in two decades has killed 750 people so far. The southern African country of 20
AP
A health worker takes a cholera vaccine at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, central Malawi, on Wednesday. Malawi’s health minister says the country’s worst cholera outbreak in two decades has killed 750 people so far. The southern African country of 20 million people first reported the outbreak last March.

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP):

The worst cholera outbreak to affect Malawi in two decades has now claimed 750 lives, a government minister said, while the World Health Organization (WHO) chief described the southeast African country as among the hardest-hit amid ongoing global epidemics that are “more widespread and deadly than normal”.

Malawi’s Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda on Thursday ordered the closure of many businesses that lack safe water, toilets and hygienic refuse-disposal facilities, and announced restrictions on the sale of precooked food.

“We continue to record rising number of cases across the country, despite signs of reduced transmission and deaths in a few areas,” Chiponda said in a statement, and urged adherence to sanitation and hygiene measures.

On Wednesday, Chiponda said 17 people had died from 589 new cases of the water-borne disease “in the past 24 hours”. She said the country has recorded 22,759 cases since the onset of the outbreak in March last year.

Figures show that about 15 people have been dying daily in recent days, with 155 deaths recorded in the past 10 days. Nearly 1,000 people were hospitalised as of Wednesday.

This week, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 31 countries have reported cholera outbreaks since December, a 50 per cent increase over previous years.

“While we have had large cholera outbreaks before, we have not seen such a large number of simultaneous outbreaks,” Tedros said, adding that Malawi, along with Haiti and Syria, are among the worst-affected countries.

Last year, the WHO and its partners switched to a single dose of the standard cholera vaccine instead of the usual two doses, due to supply problems.

“Production is currently at maximum capacity, and despite this unprecedented decision, the stockpile remains very low,” Tedros said, adding that four more countries have asked for vaccines in the past few weeks.

The WHO has previously blamed the unprecedented global surge in cholera on complex humanitarian crises in countries with fragile health systems that are being aggravated by climate change. Warmer temperatures and increased rains make it easier for the bacteria that cause cholera to multiply and spread.