Lilongwe, Jan. 14 (FN Agency) The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has delivered lifesaving supplies worth 300 million Malawian Kwacha (about 294,000 U.S. dollars) to Malawi in response to the country’s cholera outbreak. The supplies, which include Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) kits to support health facilities and communities, high-performance tents, compound sodium lactate, doxycycline, paracetamol and cannulas, arrived in Malawi Friday. On Monday the Malawi government appealed to the public and private sectors, and international community for support following continued rise in cholera spread and deaths across the country.
A statement released Friday by UNICEF in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, said the support received from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) will help the Malawi government’s scale up efforts to halt the ongoing cholera outbreak. “We will continue to support the Ministry of Health to scale up the cholera response. We appreciate the tireless efforts from frontline health and community workers to manage the influx of cholera cases,” said the statement.
It further quoted UNICEF Malawi’s Country Representative, Rudolf Schwenk, as describing the cholera outbreak as “a threat to the health of children. “Records indicate that 6,269 children have already been affected countrywide and that 104 children have died.Since the first cases of cholera were recorded in Malawi in March 2022, the country has recorded 23,752 cases and 795 deaths in all the country’s 28 districts as of Friday, according to health authorities’ update on the disease. On Dec. 5, 2022, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera declared cholera a public health emergency.