The WHO is “very concerned” about the cholera outbreak in Malawi, the deadliest in its history

9 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The World Health Organization (WHO) has shown this Thursday “very concerned” about the outbreak of cholera in Malawi, which has so far left nearly 40,000 cases and more than 1,300 deaths, making it the deadliest in the history of the African country.

“We are particularly concerned about the situation in Malawi,” said Patrick Otim, an epidemiologist and head of Health Emergencies at the WHO office in Africa, who pointed to a “significant increase” in cases on the continent in January 2023.

Thus, it has specified that, although several outbreaks have been registered in the region since 2021, “countries were able to respond and contain it quickly”, while in January close to 26,000 cases were confirmed, which represents 30 percent of the confirmed last year.

“We are concerned that, if this trend continues, we would exceed the cases of 2022, which would put great pressure on the health systems in the affected countries,” he indicated, while stressing that the mortality rate is 3.3 percent. “It is recommended that it be below one percent, so it is worrying,” she lamented.

Otim has stressed that so far this year there have been cases of cholera in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia, although he has stressed that Malawi – -where the disease has been endemic since the 1990s- is the most affected country.

For his part, Malawi’s Minister of Health, Charles Mwansambo, has detailed that 40,284 infections have been confirmed so far, with 1,316 deaths. “On average, per day, we are registering more than 500 cases,” he reported, before pointing out that “most of the cases take place in five districts, especially in the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, specifically in peri-urban areas.”

“Most of the cases are people between the ages of 10 and 59, with about 60 percent (of the total). Most of the deaths are people over 50 years of age,” he said. The Government of Malawi declared a health emergency at the beginning of December due to the cholera outbreak and its geographical expansion, which affects the 29 provinces of the country.