By George Mponda

Karonga, February 20, Mana: Director of Health Services for Karonga District Health Office, Dr. David Sibale, has disclosed that they have recorded 243 cases of viral conjunctivitis disease in five days, from Monday to Friday last week.

An outbreak of the disease, also known as pink eye, was announced by the district health office on February 13.

Speaking in an interview with Malawi News Agency on Tuesday, Dr. Sibale attributed the spread of the disease to knowledge gaps and travelling of people to and from neighboring Tanzania.

Sibale said: "Knowledge gaps usually exist at the beginning of any outbreak and what happens is that it keeps on spreading until a lot of people become infected that's when they become aware of the problem and start to act. 

“Another reason is that there is a lot of travelling through Karonga to Tanzania and back which can also fuel transmission of the disease."

He said there are still some cases which have not yet been detected, adding that people in the communities are talking of having eye conditions.

Sibale explained that the district is currently promoting health education through various means so that many people should be aware of the outbreak and follow health guidelines.

In a separate interview, Senior Chief Karonga said there is need for massive awareness campaigns to be conducted in the district.

"What I have noted is that there appears to be so much awareness messages through phones but I think there should be more work being done on the ground by reaching out even to the hardest to reach areas in the district where phone signals are a problem," he said.

Viral conjunctivitis is a disease which affects the eyes and it is caused by a virus that can easily spread from person to person. Signs and symptoms include; pink or red colour in the white part of the eye, swelling of the conjunctiva (eye lining), increased tear production, itching, eye discharge, painful eye and visual disturbance.