Malawi, which is seeing a surge of cholera cases, has used up all of the 2.9m cholera vaccines in the country, and health officials are “currently engaging with the World Health Organisation” for another donation of the shots, said the Health Ministry. An isolated case of polio has also been identified in one district.
The death toll from a cholera outbreak has passed 1 000, while cases have risen to 30 621, the highest on record in the country, health minister Khumbize Chiponda said on Wednesday (25 January).
Most deaths have occurred in the two main cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre, where children have recently gone back to schools, the openings of which were delayed to try to contain the spread, reports TimesLIVE.
Chiponda urged people to take extra care handling the bodies of cholera victims before funerals.
“People who are dying from cholera may be washed by family members who then prepare funeral feasts … Outbreaks of cholera commonly follow these feasts,” she said.
Authorities are also pleading with citizens “to observe good hygiene” as they continue the fight against the infectious disease and while they await more vaccines, reports AllAfrica.
In October, MedicalBrief reported that an international cholera vaccine shortage had forced a temporary shift to a one-dose strategy from the usual two in campaigns to fight numerous outbreaks, according to the WHO, which said the change in strategy would allow for the doses to be used in more countries during an unprecedented rise in infections worldwide.
The UN health agency said the “strained global supply of cholera vaccines” had pushed the International Co-ordinating Group (ICG), which manages emergency supplies of vaccines, to suspend the two-dose regimen.
Adding to Malawi’s health woes, the Blantyre District Council Health Office has announced a confirmed case of polio in the district.
The sample, from a 14-year-old girl, was sent to the Ministry of Health in December, after active surveillance by health workers, who are investigating the case.
A communiqué from health officials in the region told the public that “there is no need to panic” as all eligible children had been vaccinated during door to door Supplement Immunisation Activities (SIA) in 2022.
“However, mothers and caregivers of infants under 12 months should ensure they have received all recommended doses of the vaccine.”
Cholera death toll passes 1,000 in Malawi as outbreak spreads (Open access)
AllAfrica article – Malawi Runs Out of Cholera Vaccine (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Malawi struggling to contain cholera outbreak
WHO shifts to one-dose cholera jab as outbreaks increase, stocks dwindle
Malawi declares outbreak following Africa’s first wild polio case in five years
Polio may never be eradicated, say experts