The number of people who have died from a cholera outbreak in Malawi has risen by a staggering 64 percent over the past month as the government steps up efforts to improve the country’s water and sanitation infrastructure, the health ministry said late Monday.
The ministry revealed that the death toll from the cholera outbreak had risen to 180 as of Monday from 110 at beginning of October.
It attributed the attributed the rising death toll to unsanitary conditions during food preparation in the affected communities as well as lack of proper water and sanitation infrastructure.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection usually caught by eating or drinking contaminated food or water and is closely linked to poor sanitation.
The government is working with development partners to ensure that the country has adequate infrastructure to avoid recurrence of water-borne diseases in future.
According to the ministry, the situation was being worsened by the refusal by some patients to seek medical treatment for religious reasons.
It appealed to religious institutions to encourage their members to seek proper health services to avoid “unnecessary” loss of lives.
Other patients are taking long to seek treatment and only visit hospitals when it is already late, it said.
The latest cholera outbreak was first detected in March this year in the southern district of Machinga.
The cumulative number of cases stood at 6,056, the ministry said.
JN/APA