Schools in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, and the city of Blantyre, the country’s second most populous, reopened Tuesday after nearly two weeks of closure due to a cholera outbreak that has left more than 750 people dead.
Malawi’s parliamentary education committee has called for close monitoring of the situation in schools and said schools could be closed again if the situation worsens, The Daily Times reported.
The chairman of the commission, Brainax Kaise, has stressed that «no food should be allowed in from outside» and stressed that there should be hand-washing facilities in all centers. «It would be important for students to be given priority in the cholera vaccination campaign,» he said.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the ‘vibrio cholerae’ bacillus, as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) on its website, where it stresses that «cholera remains a global threat to public health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social development».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
