The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for strong interventions in order to curtail the Malawi cholera outbreak.
Development Diaries reports that cholera, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, is contracted from a bacterium that is generally transmitted through contaminated food or water.
The global health body announced on Thursday that the cholera outbreak in the country, which is Malawi’s deadliest, had killed at least 1,210 people.
Data from WHO reveals that Malawi has reported 36,943 cholera cases and 1,210 associated deaths from all 29 districts since 03 March, 2022.
WHO, in a statement, noted that the outbreak in Malawi is occurring against the backdrop of a surge in cholera outbreaks globally, which has constrained the availability of vaccines, tests, and treatments.
‘In total, more than one billion people around the world are directly at risk of cholera’, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters.
The government of Malawi declared the outbreak a public health emergency on 05 December, 2022.
Confirmed cases have been reported in neighbouring Mozambique, while poor water, sanitation and hygiene pose a risk to other bordering countries.
WHO has deployed an emergency medical team to Malawi to support the response to the outbreak in the country, adding that it had activated its Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) network for the response.
Photo source: UNICEF
