Speaking to stakeholders on Tuesday, Thyolo District NICE Trust Civic Education Officer, Moses Kaunda says now mindset change is very crucial as people continue to engage in unhygienic practices that are risking their lives such as, drinking unprotected water and avoiding medical help.

"Most of the things that contribute to the spread of cholera are that people continue practicing habits that jeopardise their lives like, eating without washing hands, continue with handshakes or drinking unprotected water. So people need to change the way they do things by following hygienic processes if we are to fight the pandemic," he said.

On his part, Thyolo District Health Promotions Officer, Fanuel Makina says cholera is real and agreed that prevention of the pandemic requires everyone's change of perceptions and enhancing sanitation prevention measures, as it was with Covid-19.

As of Tuesday, over 1, 300 people have suffered from cholera while 31 have died in the district, according to Makina.

Makina said: "This is the way to go, everybody has to be on the ground helping communities to change their minds. With this disease, we just need to combine the hygienic practices as we were doing with Covid-19 because transmission, prevention and the control of the two are almost the same".

Meanwhile, Senior Chief Nchiramwera has urged stakeholders to hold hands and not wait for the availability of the resources, like allowances to go flat out to help communities understand and contain the emergency at hand.

NICE is engaging stakeholders in the districts such as, chiefs and youths under the Mindset change enabler of the Malawi 2063 with funding from the Malawi government.