He said that 39 of the deaths occured in two shantytowns of the administrative capital Lilongwe due to "perennial water shortages and poor sanitation in city townships".
"People are not accessing safe water and hygiene methods," he said.
Malawi authorities said the outbreak was not linked to the cholera epidemic ravaging its fellow southern African state Zimbabwe, where 3 323 people have died from the disease, according to the World Health Organisation.
About 35% of Malawi’s 13 million population has no access to clean drinking water while 81.4% of households use pit latrines, official figures indicate. Up to 1 000 people died of cholera in Malawi in 2001.
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