By James Kanyenda

Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda MP says government is committed to the fight against Cholera and Polio as cholera outbreak hits lake shore districts of Nkhatabay and Nkhotakota. Chiponda said this during a press briefing which she held alongside Minister of Information Gospel Kazako at the Central Office of Information in Lilongwe.

Chiponda said so far, her ministry has managed to come up with isolation centres in the affected areas as well as necessary drugs for treating cholera patients. She added that her ministry has also distributed chlorine for water treatment and intensified surveillance for detection of the disease and containment of further spreading.

The Minister then commended the Ministry of Water and Sanitation for supplying the people in the affected areas with clean water. She also thanked other development partners such as UNICEF, WHO and Red Cross for their assistance.

On the fight against polio, the minister said so far 3.5 million children have been vaccinated during the previous three rounds and she pleaded with the remaining parents to vaccinate their children in the last round even if they were previously vaccinated, to boost immunity.

The minister also touched on Covid 19 by reminding Malawians that it is still existing and they still need to follow all precautionary measures for prevention. She said Malawi has enough stocks of Covid 19 vaccine and called on Malawians who got vaccinated already to go and get a different type of vaccine in what she termed ‘mix and match’. She said this is a way of boosting the immunity against covid 19.