Malawi is experiencing the deadliest cholera outbreak in its history. The outbreak which has lasted for nearly one year has spread to all 29 districts in the country with a consistently high case fatality rate of above 3%.
Experts have attributed the prolonged outbreak to a cocktail of factors which include structural problems in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector, lack of access to accurate information on the disease, and climatic factors including flooding, which affects access to clean water in communities.
“There are a number of factors, starting with an issue of the climate and the weather that now has translated into this severe epidemic,” Malawi’s permanent secretary for health, Charles Mwansambo, said at a World Health Organization press briefing in February.
About the author
Madalitso Wills KatetaMadatso_Kateta
Madalitso Wills Kateta is a Malawi-based Devex contributing reporter. He specializes in gender, human rights, climate change, politics, and global development reporting. He has written for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, The New Humanitarian, African Arguments, Equal Times, and others.
