Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Malawi delays reopening schools as cholera cases surge

Malawi delays reopening schools as cholera cases surge

MALAWI has delayed the opening of public schools in the southern African country's two major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, the health minister, to try to slow down a surge in cholera deaths. The total number of cases and deaths has accelerated to 17,824 and 595 respectively since cases were first reported in March, with the mortality rate increasing to 3.34 per cent, according to the Health Ministry. Cholera is an annual problem during Malawi's rainy months from November to March, where the number of deaths is around 100 a year. But the current outbreak is expected to be the…
Read More
Malawi cholera death toll rises to 180

Malawi cholera death toll rises to 180

THE death toll from a cholera outbreak in Malawi accelerated to 180 from 110 in October, the minister of health said, raising the likelihood that the situation could worsen. The first case of the debilitating infection, which spreads mainly through contaminated food and water, was reported in March in the southern district of Machinga. The case fatality rate has risen to 3% from 2.8% recorded at the start of October, Malawi's health minister Khumbize Chiponda said in a statement, adding that the total number of infections since the start of the outbreak stood at 5,939. Thomson Reuters Foundation
Read More
Struggling to save a mountain forest

Struggling to save a mountain forest

BIRD STORY AGENCY STAFF 65KM east of Blantyre, a national icon rises sharply from Phalombe plains, close to the tea-growing Mulanje district; at 3002 metres tall, free-standing Mt. Mulanje is Malawi’s highest peak. The mountain and its surroundings - with numerous tea estates and a once-thick mountain forest — has been home 27-year-old David Samikwa's home for as long as he can remember. “My parents have been working in the tea estates. We have been raised here, taken to school here and even if we move out occasionally for tertiary studies, Mulanje is the place we know best,” he said.…
Read More
Malawi banks on young tech innovators to trump cheap imports

Malawi banks on young tech innovators to trump cheap imports

CHARLES PENSULO WHEN Malawian engineer Ruth Mtuwa was a child, she visited a sick family member in hospital and was shocked to see that barely any of the medical equipment worked. That realisation pushed her to want to help, leading her on the path to becoming a biomedical engineer. Today, the 21-year-old research assistant has managed to bring a number of medical innovations to life - including a low-cost nebuliser and a hypertension tracking device - despite tight funding and crushing foreign competition. "I thought if we design on our own equipment, it should be easy to fix on our…
Read More
Are 3D-printed schools a solution to Africa’s classroom shortage?

Are 3D-printed schools a solution to Africa’s classroom shortage?

CHARLES PENSULO GATHERED under the hot sun, dozens of women danced and sang in jubilation as children from the village of Salima, in central Malawi, started their first day at their new 3D-printed school, which had been built from the ground up in only 15 hours. Made of concrete placed layer by layer through a computer-controlled nozzle, the school is made up of a single room with rounded corners and is big enough to accommodate 50 students. Olipa Elisa said her 10-year-old son used to have to hike 5km (3 miles) every day to the nearest school, often arriving late…
Read More
Malawi burns 20,000 expired vaccines

Malawi burns 20,000 expired vaccines

FRANK PHIRI  MALAWI has destroyed 19,610 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines that expired 18 days after arriving, despite assurances from the African Union (AU) and World Health Organisation (WHO) that the vaccines were safe until mid-July. A batch of 102,000 vaccines arrived on March 26, under an initiative by the AU and WHO, and they expired on April 13, leaving less than three weeks for them to be used. Malawi managed to deploy about 80 percent of them by that time. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), part of the AU, told…
Read More
Access Malawi – Mozambique-Malawi Route Diagnostic

Access Malawi – Mozambique-Malawi Route Diagnostic

GREG MILLS, RICHARD HARPER and MIKE DU TOIT ‘YOU go to the police station,’ menaced Sergeant Silvestre, turning to point behind his back at a lime green building, explaining that the crime was ‘not wearing a mask in the car’. We were stopped in a queue of trucks and cars negotiating speedbumps, army, police, paramilitary, immigration agents and sellers of nuts, cooldrinks and much else at the bridge that spans the great Save River in Mozambique’s Inhambane Province, just north of the popular tourist destination of Vilanculos. We saw no tourists at all on the road to Malawi from Maputo,…
Read More
MPs block debate of bill to ease Malawi’s strict abortion law

MPs block debate of bill to ease Malawi’s strict abortion law

CHARLES PENSULO LAWMAKERS in Malawi have blocked debate of proposals to ease abortion restrictions in the southern African country, where unsafe terminations contribute to one of the region's highest rates of maternal mortality. Mathews Ngwale, head of the parliamentary health committee and the bill's main sponsor, vowed to present the draft law again in the weeks or months ahead after members of parliament (MPs) rejected a motion to discuss the controversial proposal. The abortion bill, which was first drawn up nearly five years ago, has met strong opposition from church groups in the mainly Christian country including Roman Catholic bishops,…
Read More
Malawi closes borders again following coronavirus resurgence

Malawi closes borders again following coronavirus resurgence

MALAWI will close its borders for 14 days and restrict public gatherings to 100 people following a new surge in cases of the coronavirus, the southern African nation's presidential task force on COVID-19 said on Tuesday. After nearly two months without new positive cases, Malawi on Tuesday recorded 46 new infections, bringing the total number of infections to 6,248, with 187 deaths, according to the health ministry. Malawi's borders and airports re-opened in October as positive cases fell, although some experts fear the real figure may be higher as just over 80,000 tests have been conducted. Malawi has a population…
Read More
Dignity at the end of life: a Malawian nursing study shows the impact of food

Dignity at the end of life: a Malawian nursing study shows the impact of food

WORLD hunger has risen for the third year in a row, with Africa reported to have the highest rate of undernourishment of all regions globally. Africa also bears the greatest burden of HIV, which is linked to food insecurity, and women are disproportionately affected by HIV and food insecurity compared to men. ELIZABETH MKANDAWIRE, Network and Research Manager: ARUA – UKRI GCRF FSNet Africa, University of Pretoria ANNE DRESSEL, Assistant Professor of Global Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee LUCY MKANDAWIRE-VALHMU, Associate professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, College of Nursing PENINNAH KAKO, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, Associate Professor, College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee…
Read More