Zuleika Nanguwo
As the world’s population continues to grow, the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is a likelihood that new infections will continue to emerge.
Examples of the recent hard-to-deal with ailments include Covid-19, SARS, and Mpox whose spread has partly been attributed to increased global movement of people and climatic changes.
WHO says despite registering success in conventional approaches to health care, the global burden of infectious disease is immense, creating the need for modern and effective ways of producing drugs and vaccines.
One such way is biotechnology, the use of biology to develop new products, methods and organisms intended to improve human health and society.
Just recently, doctors in the United States successfully conducted heart and kidney transplants on two men using organs from genetically modified pigs. Although both men died later, the studies have been hailed as a milestone. But is this technology viable for a country like Malawi? Zuleika Nanguwo finds out.
Rheumatic Heart Disease is when rheumatic fever permanently damages heart valves in a person.
Children who get repeated strep-throat infections and rheumatic fever are the most at risk to be diagnosed with this heart condition.
In our special report, Zuleika Nanguwo, takes us through the challenges children with Rheumatic Heart Disease face in the quest to access expensive-government sponsored treatment abroad.
As nations of the world work to meet the United Nations 2030 deadline on provision of safe and potable water to citizens, in Malawi, it is becoming increasingly clear that the goal may not be met on time.
While water and sanitation infrastructure is already inadequate to provide quality water, the effects of natural disasters such as storms and cyclones have worsened the situation.
With six years to 2030, millions of Malawians, especially in the Southern region, are still drawing water from unprotected sources. And, in some cases, even sources that should ordinarily provide quality water are not because the infrastructure is damaged and taking contaminated water to the people.
A family in Lilongwe has blamed negligence by staff at Bwaila Hospital for the death of their 24-year-old daughter who was eight months pregnant.
Apolisi amanga abambo atatu - a Gift Banda a zaka 29, a Yusuf Matola a zaka 33 ndi a Regan Phiri a zaka 39 - powaganizira kuti akukhudzidwa ndi kuphedwa kwa mzika ya dziko la South Korea pa 7 February chaka chino.
Lilongwe: Agriculture experts in the Malawi capital say the government needs to promptly conduct an assessment to have a right picture and data of how many people have been affected by the dry spell so as to make right decisions.
Aside from the excruciating pain they have to deal with, they live in a country where there is no specialized treatment for the condition.
Hundreds of cancer patients in Malawi are travelling abroad in search of treatment, in the process the cash-strapped government spend in excess of US2 million annually. On the other hand, individuals that cannot be included on the state list spend in excess of K30 million.
The Malawi Union for The Blind says despite efforts in promoting rights of people with visual impairments, access to information is still a challenge among them calling for swift action by authorities to address this.
The organization’s Executive Director Ezekiel Kumwenda says this limit them to be independent and puts them behind development thereby calling on government to ensure that important documents such as education books and the constitution are made accessible to them in braille form.
He has made the remarks as the country joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Braille Day today.
Kumwenda says for instance, people with visual impairments fail to progress in education as they cannot fully access information.
He said: “If it is put in the constitution, it means education information will be made available and in an accessible format. This means learners with visual impairments will have text books in an accessible format and even economic information should be made in accessible format which will make them to be independent other than what is happening at the moment.”
He adds that: “for Braille to be produced it needs a lot of things that is why we are calling on government to make sure that the resources are made available and the things should be affordable. Some of the products are not locally made so we want government to completely exempt taxes on these devices.”
Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Jean Sendeza is optimistic that once the president signs the Persons with Disability Bill which was passed in parliament in December 2023, most of the challenges persons with disabilities are facing will be history.
She said: “We have recently passed a Bill in parliament which will be assented to shortly by the president. This Bill has taken care the issues of information to each and every person with disabilities. It will take care of information and infrastructure issues so that no person with disabilities is left behind.”
This year, the day is being commemorated under the theme “Empowering Through Inclusion and Diversity.”
The Ministry of Health says the country reduced malaria cases from 6.1 million in 2016 to 4.2 million cases in 2022 and malaria deaths from 4,000 to 1,829 in 2022.
President Lazarus Chakwera has led Malawians in viewing of the body of late veteran politician John Zenus Ungapake Tembo at the MCP headquarters in Lilongwe.