Karonga District Council has suspended serving of food in social gatherings as a measure to contain the spread of cholera in the district.

According to a statement issued yesterday and signed by Karonga district commissioner Paul Kalilombe, the ban includes eating in social gatherings such as weddings, meetings, religious events and funerals.

The front view of Karonga District Hospital

Reads the statement in part: “Karonga District Council would like to inform the public that it has suspended eating in social gatherings such as weddings, meetings, religious events and funerals.

“This has been necessitated as an effort to contain the current cholera outbreak in the district because eating in gatherings creates favourable ground for the spread of cholera.”

Kalilombe has appealed to people to adhere to other cholera preventive measures, including drinking safe and treated water, proper use of pit latrines, washing hands with soap after using the toilet as well as before handling or eating food.

Karonga District Hospital spokesperson Estery Nyirenda said her office has intensified awareness campaigns through radio programmes to reach out to people in the district.

“We are also distributing chlorine through health surveillance assistants and we plan to meet market committees to raise awareness on how to protect home cooked and fresh foods,” she said.

However, during our visit to some public places, including Karonga Main Market, it was discovered that few people knew about the outbreak in the district.

Salome Mwalughali, who was selling boiled green maize, expressed ignorance about the outbreak.

“Honestly, I don’t know that Karonga has registered cholera cases. The authorities did not communicate to us. Otherwise, we would have been observing preventive measures,” she said.

Karonga Main Market chairperson Goodwin Ghambi said so far, the council is yet to reach out to market users on preventive measures to contain the outbreak.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that as of Sunday, Karonga District had registered 78 cholera cases and four deaths.

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