Neno District Heath Office says it will roll out Oral Cholera Vaccination Campaign this coming Wednesday, 21 January up to January 22, 2026.

The district has already received 26,092 doses of Oral Cholera Vaccine from the World Heath Organization, to effectively deal with the disease that has hit the district.

The mainly waterborne infection, has caused one death with three confirmed cases and 60 accumulative figure of suspected confirmed cases.

Neno DHO publicist Caroline Banda has told Zodiak Online today Monday, that they are launching the campaign to target 80 percent of the Neno population with a focus in the affected area of Traditional Authority Symon Symon.

She said " we want to target 80 percent to surpass the National target of 75 percent, we are doing this because cholera is becoming a problem in our district, mainly due to unhygienic water sources,".

She said myths also remain a major challenge hence calling on the media, chiefs and other influencial groups of people to help in raising awareness on the need to take the dose which is to be taken once instead of twice due to inadequate doses.

In the district, Midzemba, Lisungwi and Zalewa catchment catchment areas are the worse hit, this area has no piped water, raising concerns among the residents there of perennial waterborne diseases.

Neno DHO was certified to conduct Cholera culture but is falling due to lack of reagents and relies on Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital for the service which takes long hence the DHO still label its results as confirmed suspected cases basing of Rapid Diagnostic Tests.

A resident at Zalewa Michael Munthali has told Zodiak that the government should not over relax but quickly connect the area to piped water, drill high yielding bores and treat its water for comfortable human consumption as a way of dealing with the disease.

Other districts to benefit from the OCV are Blantyre, Mwanza and Kasungu, targeting people from one year and above with vaccination points being mounted in schools, hospitals and other designated community gathering circles.