Health experts urge Malawians to maximize Covid-19 preventive measures to prevent cholera

Health experts in the country have urged Malawians not to relent following Covid-19 preventive measures in order to also prevent catching cholera infection during the impending rainy season.

Both Dr. Gama Bandawe and the CCAP Livingstonia Synod health coordinator, Mphatso Ngulube, have stressed that as the 2021/2022 rain season fast approaches, strict observance of the Covid-19 preventive measures can help people to also prevent the spread of cholera.

"We need to be thinking about basic public health preventive measures like hand washing; making sure food is prepared properly; and access to improved and clean water sources. All these diseases are related because we can see how much we have learned and what impacts are there if we don't prevent ourselves on understanding and preparation against cholera outbreak," said Bandawe.

On her part, Ngulube weighed in by advising the government to bend its efforts to prevention than curing the infection.

Said Ngulube: "Those things should start now not when we have cholera already because by that time, it's an emergency and people will not have time to listen to that."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson in the Ministry of Health, Adrian Chikumbe, says the ministry is upbeat about the rain season and cholera outbreak, saying they have cholera vaccines in place in case of a possible cholera outbreak.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has time and again hinted that good personal hygiene such as regular hand washing prevents people from catching potential infections like cholera.