The devastation sown by tropical cyclone Freddy in Malawi might worsen the cholera epidemic that has plagued this poor southern African country for more than a year, the Ministry of Health warned on Monday.
Even before the cyclone hit, Malawi was battling the worst cholera outbreak in its history, which has already killed more than 1,700 people and infected more than 30,600 in total, out of a population of nearly 20 million.
“With the floods, the toilets have washed away and most people have no access to clean water,” Storn Kabuluzi, director of Malawi’s health ministry, told AFP. an “immediate danger”.
Cyclone Freddy, which dissipated this week, caused severe flooding and deadly landslides in the country, where nearly half a million people lost their homes.
“Children are the most vulnerable” to the disease, warned Mohamed Malick Fall, UNICEF regional director for East and Southern Africa.
According to the organization, the threat also hangs over neighboring Mozambique, where disruptions in water supply and sanitation services are “causing a rapid acceleration in the number of cases”.
Freddy, on course to be ranked the longest cyclone on record, first hit Madagascar and Mozambique in late February. He then returned to the Indian Ocean, where he gained strength from the warm waters, before turning around and returning to the mainland.
Cholera, an acute diarrheal infection caused by the absorption of food or water contaminated with bacteria, is on the rise, particularly in Africa, according to the WHO.