Lilongwe District Council strengthens cholera preventive measures
Stakeholders have ganged up to scale up efforts in the fight against cholera that has affected a number of districts in the country.
Briefing members of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) district coordination team in Lilongwe, Director of Planning and Development for Lilongwe District Council, Douglas Moffat said it was encouraging to note that several stakeholders have pledged their support towards the fight against cholera, especially in Lilongwe where several cases were reported too.
Moffat said the support was overwhelming, adding that government alone would not have managed to effectively fight against that deadly disease.
“Lilongwe is one of the districts that have been affected and the response that we are getting from stakeholders is so overwhelming which has made the fight against cholera easy for us,” said Moffat.
He said this has helped the council through, the district health office, to be able to erect treatment centres in some parts of the city to avoid congestion at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) and Bwaila Hospital.
“We are pleased to inform the general public that treatment centres have been erected in different points to avoid congestion but also as a preventive measure for further spread. This has been possible because government and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are committed towards the fight against cholera,” he explained.
District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) for Lilongwe, Paul Chunga, said so far four cholera treatment centres have been erected in Lilongwe. The centres include Area 25, KCH, Bwaila and Chilinde.
According to Chunga, there are also plans to erect another treatment centre at Area 18 Health Centre so that those that are within that catchment area can be assisted there rather than travelling to KCH or Bwaila.
“We have erected tents in those specific areas and we hope that more treatment areas will be established,” he said.
He said another case was reported from Nathenje which prompted the team to erect another treatment area within the affected communities so that lives are not at stake.
The team also agreed that they should ban those that are selling cooked foods within the premises of the treatment centres to avoid further spread of the disease.
As of Tuesday, Lilongwe had registered nine cholera admissions and managed to discharge six who were confirmed to have been recovered.
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