Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Chikondano Mussa said has with immediate effect banned selling of food in primary and secondary school premises. This is done to prevent the spread of the outbreak of cholera in schools.

Mussa said, “Despite cholera being a deadly disease, it is preventable. Institutions must observe water sanitation and hygiene practices such as proper management of solid waste, make available hand-washing facilities and hygiene in boarding schools as well as universities and colleges.”

All cases of cholera need to be reported to relevant education authorities, monitor learner attendance every day, display cholera messages such as symptoms, transmission and prevention in all strategic places at the school.

The disease is caused by a bacterium vibrio.

The cholera incubation period is between two hour and five days. However, infected people can carry and transmit the bacteria for four weeks.

Symptoms include acute watery diarrhoea, profuse vomiting, profuse ‘rice water’ stools, no fever, no abdominal cramps, and dehydration including loss of body weight, renal failure and death. The cholera outbreak, first reported in Machinga this year, has infected 4 107 people and killed 116 in 23 districts of the country.