“What we can say is they were risk multipliers.”ĮDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and Grist exploring the intersection of climate change and infectious diseases.Ĭholera is a diarrheal illness that spreads in places without access to clean water and sanitation, when people swallow food or water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacteria. “It’s difficult to say that (Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe) caused the cholera outbreak,” UNICEF public health emergency specialist Raoul Kamadjeu said. According to the WHO, 30 countries reported outbreaks in 2022, 50% more than previous years’ average many of those outbreaks were compounded by tropical cyclones and their ensuing displacement of people. The World Health Organization says that while poverty and conflict remain enduring drivers for cholera around the world, climate change is aggravating the acute global upsurge of the disease that began in 2021. When cases finally began to decline in March, cholera had claimed over 1,600 lives in a 12-month period - the biggest outbreak in the country’s history.Īs climate change intensifies, storms like Ana and Gombe are becoming more frequent, more powerful, and wetter. By early February of this year, cases had peaked at 700 per day with a fatality rate of 3.3 %, three times higher than the typical rate. The 2022 outbreak showed a different pattern - cholera spread throughout the dry season and by August had moved into Malawi’s northern and central regions. “That March, we started to see cholera, which is usually endemic in Malawi, becoming an outbreak,” said Gerrit Maritz, a deputy representative for health programs in Malawi for the United Nations Children’s Fund.Ĭholera typically affects the country during the rainy season, from December to March, during which time it remains contained around Lake Malawi in the south and results in about 100 deaths each year. READ MORE: Warming planet may have overwhelming impact on infectious diseases Fifty-three people died.Īmid an already-heavy rainy season, the storms Ana and Gombe caused devastation across southern Malawi to homes, crops, and infrastructure. In early 2022, nearly 200,000 Malawians were displaced after two tropical storms struck the southeastern part of Africa barely a month apart.
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