BLANTYRE, MALAWI – As early as 6:30 am, Malawi’s community health workers are already scattered across urban and rural neighbourhoods, dressed in sky-blue uniforms with square cooler boxes slung over their shoulders. For four days in mid-August, health surveillance assistants (HSAs) across the country walked from door to door, administering the novel oral polio […] Continue reading ->
Pregnant women with disabilities in Malawi face a myriad of challenges, despite several policies and an Act stipulating the need to respect disability rights, including in health service provision. BLANTYRE, Malawi – When Lynes Manduwa miscarried, nurses in the gynaecology ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) ganged up and confronted her husband. “They confronted […] Continue reading ->
After experiencing the distress of caring for a loved one with advanced cervical cancer, Edna Maloya vowed to take proactive measures to ensure that her family and friends would be protected. “I was my cousin’s caregiver. I can’t take chances with cervical cancer,” says Maloya, who lives in Blantyre, Malawi’s second largest city. She happily […] Continue reading ->
BLANTYRE, Malawi – Boyden Ndlovu of Mzimba district, one of Malawi’s tobacco growing districts located in the northern region says that his lifetime has been synonymous with tobacco farming. Tobacco has been a mainstay of Malawi’s economy, historically generating about 70% of export revenue and now accounting for over half – yet the country finally […] Continue reading ->
Three more countries, Kenya, Cape Verde and Democratic Republic of Congo, have ratified the African Medicines Agency (AMA) Treaty recently – and Kenya’s ratification now means that most major East African countries are on board with the treaty. Twenty-six countries have now fully ratified the treaty, one of the steps required for the establishment of […] Continue reading ->
On a partly cloudy morning last week, staff and onlookers watched with excitement and curiosity as a drone carrying polio vaccine doses was launched from the Matawale Health Centre in Zomba in eastern Malawi. The drone was being sent to Chisi Island, one of the hard-to-reach parts of this district that is often left out of […] Continue reading ->
BLANTYRE, Malawi – Key Malawian key stakeholders have given the nod for the country to ratify the African Medicines Agency (AMA) treaty, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has confirmed. The AMA is being established as a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) dedicated to improving access to quality, safe and […] Continue reading ->
Submerged houses, collapsed buildings, uprooted trees and floating household items are what remains of Mtemangawa Village in Nsanje district, located in southern Malawi, bordering Mozambique. This is where one of the longest-lasting storms in the southern hemisphere, Tropical Cyclone Freddy, entered Malawi on March 12, 2023. Home to about 300 000 people, Nsanje is Malawi’s […] Continue reading ->