Nsanje, southern Malawi, February 27 (MaraviPost) _ Two people have been confirmed dead following a cholera outbreak that has hit Malawi’s southern border district of Nsanje, the Belgian charity Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) has said.
“There have been confirmed cases of cholera cases. We have set up a cholera treatment unit and the cholera seems to be under control, seems to be contained,”
said Simon Burroughs, MSF’s Emergency Coordinator. “However, we are very worried about it spreading into the (Internally Displaced People) camps.”
Over 230,000 people in 15 out of the country’s 28 districts have been displaced and are in crammed conditions in IDP camps. At least 176 people have been confirmed dead but over 200 more are still unaccounted for. The southern Lower Shire districts of Nsanje and Chikwawa are the worst hit.
Over 5,000 people are crammed at Bitirinyu Camp in Nsanje, about a kilometre from the Ndamera Cholera Treatment Unit, where Maravi Post visited Friday.
The medical charity believes the district must have been imported from across the border in Mozambique where 3,478 cholera cases have been recorded with a death toll of 37, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Dr. Duncan Owino, MSF’s Medical Focal Point Person, told Maravi Post the first cholera case in Nsanje was a young man who had just returned from a mine in
Mozambique.
“He came back and after three or four days some of his family members started having diarrhoea and cholera was confirmed and that’s how we traced the cholera back to Mozambique,” he said.
Owino also said another young man who worked at the same Mozambican mine infected at least six members of his family.
“Most of the cholera cases have had contacts with somebody who must have travelled to Mozambique in the past one week,” he said.
Erin Law, IFRC Regional Health Delegate, said her charity was “extremely worried” that this cholera outbreak will put flood-affected communities at further
risk.
“This outbreak makes it essential that we secure safe water and sanitation facilities for everyone who was left homeless by the floods as soon as possible.
It is also vital that we establish detection and referral mechanisms for cholera patients and promote proper hygienic behaviour,” she said in a statement.
The floods destroyed several hectares of crop fields. According to the Ministry of Health and Food Security, some 63,531 hectares of crop fields were
submerged in water of which 35,000 hectares were completely destroyed, prompting a spectre of hunger in the next few months.-maravipost
