The New York Times. (2023, January 22). In a Nation That Nearly Wiped Out Cholera, the Disease Is Surging Back. Retrieved January 29, 2023 from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/world/africa/malawi-cholera-outbreak.html?searchResultPosition=6
In the article “In a Nation That Nearly Wiped Out Cholera, the Disease Is Surging Back”, Golden Matonga and John Eligon discuss how cholera cases have been rapidly increasing in the country of Malawi, in southern Africa. Malawi only had two cases of cholera in 2021, but it had more than 900 deaths from the disease in 2022. Cholera spreads with the contamination of drinking water by human waste, and is generally found in countries where large percentages of the population do not have access to clean drinking water. The outbreak was likely caused by a confluence of factors, including few vaccines and healthcare facilities, waning vaccinations, and heavy rains and floods that destroyed bathrooms and hand-washing facilities.
A lot of the time we think that in order to save lives we need to invent new technologies, but most of the time we just need to make existing technologies available to a larger population. Cholera is a preventable disease that people should not continue to die from, and it angers me that people do anyways. Hopefully Malawi and similar countries will be able to restore or implement more water management systems so that further outbreaks of cholera are prevented.
How do you think Malawi can begin to implement these new systems? What systems do you propose?
Thanks for reading! To answer your question, cholera spreads from water contaminated with fecal matter. In order to prevent this, Malawi is building more latrines and hand-washing systems, as well as encouraging vaccination. In the meantime, the country is deploying water tanks, reconnecting water taps, and providing chlorine to clean water.
I agree with what you said about how it is not always best or needed to make new technologies for everything. Some countries may be unable to get some of the technologies or these water management systems. How do you think that they can be more obtainable for some struggling countries?