Muhammad Bham<\/p>\n
mbham@radioislam.co.za<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Malawi\u2019s worst cholera outbreak on record has left more than 1,000 people dead even as cases have reached over 30 000.<\/p>\n
The death toll announced last Tuesday breached a grim milestone and surpassed the largest recorded outbreak, which killed 968 people between 2001 and 2002, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n
Health minister Khumbize Chiponda last Wednesday called on people to take extra care handling the bodies of cholera victims before funerals.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are dying from cholera may be washed by family members who then prepare funeral feasts\u2026 outbreaks of cholera commonly follow these feasts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Chiponda also urged people to use proper decontamination procedures with chlorine and plastic body bags.<\/p>\n
Most of the deaths occurred in the two main cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre where children have recently gone back to class after schools delayed opening to try and contain the spread.<\/p>\n
In November 2022, Malawi received nearly three million doses of oral cholera vaccine from the United Nations to step up its immunisation campaign but case numbers continue to rise.<\/p>\n
Health ministry spokesman Adrian Chikumbe revealed that all doses had been used.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201cthe fact that there is only one cholera vaccine manufacturer worldwide makes it difficult to acquire the life-saving drug\u201d, creating competition between countries in need.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, George Jobe, director of the non-profit Malawi Health Equity Network, says that myths and misinformation spreading online were worsening the already dire situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people don\u2019t believe we have cholera,\u201d he said. Additionally, \u201csome religions do not permit their [sick] members to go to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cholera affects between 1.3 million and four million people worldwide each year, causing up to 143,000 deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muhammad Bham mbham@radioislam.co.za 3 min read Malawi\u2019s worst cholera outbreak on record has left more than 1,000 people dead even as cases have reached over 30 000. The death toll announced last Tuesday breached a grim milestone and surpassed the largest recorded outbreak, which killed 968 people between 2001 and 2002, according to the World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4996,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/download-2.jpg?fit=278%2C181&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-jxu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 20:24:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}