Day: August 24, 2022

**Lilongwe, 24 August 2022–**The cholera outbreak, initially limited to the southern part of the country, has now spread to Malawi’s northern and central regions. To date, 1,483 cases and 58 deaths have been recorded with the case fatality rate at 3.9 per cent[1]. This is of serious concern as cases continue to rise outside the traditional hotspot districts, affecting lakeshore communities and crowded, urban areas with insufficient water and sanitation facilities.

In response to this evolving situation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stepped up their ongoing activities to support the Government of Malawi in containing and preventing the spread of this preventable disease in more districts.

Despite the continuing efforts in the national cholera outbreak response, and the need to intensify efforts, significant gaps exist. This includes the urgent need to strengthen surveillance system for early detection and management; increase quality case management at cholera treatment units; provide critical supplies required to manage cholera cases and for water treatment, personal hygiene and water storage at the household level; increase timely community engagement and dissemination of communications around cholera prevention, and positive hygiene practices.

UNICEF and WHO are, therefore, appealing to partners and donors for additional funds and support to address these challenges and enable them to better support the Government in its efforts to contain the outbreak.

“Every death from cholera is preventable with the tools we have today. WHO will continue to support the Ministry of Health in implementing immediate and long-term cholera control, response and preventive measures. The additional support will help ensure that lives continue to be saved, and a resilient health system is maintained during and beyond the current outbreak,” said WHO Country Representative Dr Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo.

“The impact of the larger outbreak will overwhelm the already over-burdened public health services and health-care delivery systems in the country, so we must act now. The good news is that we know the solutions. We are on the ground providing humanitarian assistance in the affected districts, but we need more support to further scale up our response. This will make a big difference to thousands of children and their families at risk of contracting this preventable disease. UNICEF remains fully committed to working closely with the government and partners in our collective response to the outbreak,” said UNICEF Malawi Representative Rudolf Schwenk.

Since the declaration of a cholera outbreak in March 2022, UNICEF and WHO have been working closely with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, district authorities, health centres, partners and community members in developing a response plan and coordinating the response ensuring the delivery of essential supplies and services to the families and communities in cholera-affected districts in Malawi.

Source: World Health Organization

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Idaho from enforcing an abortion ban when women with pregnancy complications require emergency care, a day after a judge in Texas ruled against President Joe Biden’s administration on the same issue.

The conflicting rulings came in two of the first lawsuits over the Democratic administration’s attempts to ease abortion access after the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure nationwide.

Legal experts said the two state rulings, if upheld on appeal, could force the Supreme Court to wade back into the debate.

About half of all U.S. states have or are expected to seek to ban or curtail abortions following Roe’s reversal. Those states include Idaho and Texas, which like 11 others adopted “trigger” laws banning abortion upon such a decision.

Abortion is already illegal in Texas under a separate, nearly century-old abortion ban that recently took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. Idaho’s trigger ban takes effect on Thursday, the same day as those in Texas and Tennessee.

In Idaho, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill agreed with the U.S. Justice Department that the abortion ban taking effect Thursday conflicts with a federal law that ensures patients can receive emergency “stabilizing care” at hospitals.

Threat to patients cited

Winmill, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction blocking Idaho from enforcing its ban to the extent it conflicts with federal law, citing the threat to patients.

“One cannot imagine the anxiety and fear she will experience if her doctors feel hobbled by an Idaho law that does not allow them to provide the medical care necessary to preserve her health and life,” Winmill wrote. “From that vantage point, the public interest clearly favors the issuance of a preliminary injunction.”

The Justice Department has said the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires abortion care in emergency situations.

Winmill’s decision came after a late-night Tuesday ruling in Texas by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix holding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Biden went too far by issuing guidance holding the same federal law guaranteed abortion care.

Hendrix agreed with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, that the guidance issued in July “discards the requirement to consider the welfare of unborn children when determining how to stabilize a pregnant woman.”

Hendrix, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, said the federal statute was silent as to what a doctor should do when there is a conflict between the health of the mother and the unborn child and that Texas’s law “fills that void.”

He issued an injunction barring the federal government from enforcing HHS’s guidance in Texas and against two groups of anti-abortion doctors who also challenged it, saying the Idaho case showed a risk the Biden administration might try to enforce it.

Hendrix declined, though, to issue a nationwide injunction as Paxton wanted, saying the “circumstances counsel in favor of a tailored, specific injunction.”

Appellate courts

Appeals are expected in both cases and would be heard by separate appeals courts, one based in San Francisco with a reputation for leaning liberal and another in New Orleans known for conservative rulings.

Greer Donley, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School and expert on abortion law, said should those appeals courts uphold this week’s dueling rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court may feel pressured to intervene and clarify the law.

“Without a federal right to abortion, this is the type of legal chaos that most people were predicting would be happening,” she said.

Shannon Selden, a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton who represents several medical associations supporting the Justice Department’s Idaho case, said “there’s a huge cloud over physicians’ ability to provide stabilizing care for patients who need it.”

“The Justice Department is trying lift that cloud through its Idaho action, and the Texas court has made that cloud darker,” she said.

Source: Voice of America

Background/ Analysis/ Overview

Based on the IPC analysis, operational constraints highlighted in the 2021/2022 Lean Season Response (LSR) After Action Review, intersectoral discussions and projections by the clusters activated for the 2022/2023 Lean Season Response (LSR), the Transport and Logistics Cluster will support the Government of Malawi and humanitarian partners to coordinate supply chain activities, deploy supply chain systems and information management tools, deliver common logistics services and undertake capacity strengthening initiatives in key food insecure districts. The response will be coordinated from primary logistics hubs in Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Bangula to ensure district level efficiencies, mobile response teams will be deployed (as required and based on available resources) to promote efficient logistics coordination, accurate commodity tracking and continuity of essential logistics services. Logistics challenges arise given the seasonal weather changes in Malawi by November, as the rainy season can limit road and warehouse access. However despite challenges, vulnerable Southern Region districts that are most impacted and have been earmarked for in-kind response.

Source: World Food Programme