Cholera: WHO confirms global resurgence, records 1,900 deaths

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced a resurgence of cholera cases across countries in Africa, East Asia, America, Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by intestine infection with the bacterium “vibrio cholerae”. The disease is highly infectious and primarily spread through contaminated water and food.

This was contained in a bulletin issued by the organisation recently.

Statistics

According to the United Nations Agency, about 195,00 cholera cases have been reported in the five regions between January and May, with the Eastern Mediterranean Region reporting the highest number of cases of more than 98,000 cases from seven countries.

Africa has the second-highest cases, with 92,789 cases from 14 countries. A distant margin from what was found in America, where about 3700 cases from one country were recorded as the third highest from an affected region.

This data, WHO said, combines both suspected and confirmed cases of the disease.

In South-East Asia, WHO said, about 1,400 cases have been reported from two countries, and in Europe, 105 cases from one country.

Currently, more than 1,900 death cases have been reported globally due to the disease outbreak.

For death cases recorded, Africa ranks highest with 1,698 deaths, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean with 256 deaths.

America has recorded 13 deaths, South-East Asia has four deaths, and Europe has reported only one death.

“There were no reported cases in the Western Pacific Region,” WHO noted in its bulletin.

Increasing number of cases

In May, the most recent data available, about 46,364 new cholera cases were reported from 19 countries across these regions.

This, WHO noted, is a 58 per cent increase from what was obtainable in the previous month.

“In the same period, 185 cholera-related deaths were registered, representing a 37 per cent decrease compared with the previous month,” WHO stated in the bulletin.

The highest number of fatalities was recorded in Africa, with 130 deaths from 10 countries.

According to WHO, the highest number of deaths was reported from Comoros, which had 54 deaths; Ethiopia, with 28 deaths; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 18; Zimbabwe, with 12 death cases; and the United Republic of Tanzania, with ten death cases.

WHO said these countries have also reported the region’s highest number of cholera infections within the past five months.

Outbreak in Nigeria

Nigeria is not mentioned in the WHO bulletin, and compared to the countries listed by the WHO, she has reported a significantly lower number of infections, especially within the period in review.

However, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the country, very recently, has been experiencing a spike in the number of recorded cases.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), the country has recorded 65 confirmed cases of Cholera, with 30 deaths from 1 January to 11 June across 96 local governments in 30 states.

A total of 1,141 suspected cases has been recorded in 2024 from 10 states, including Lagos, where state authorities confirmed the outbreak.

Vaccination

Globally, there have been several new requests for cholera vaccine, the WHO noted in the bulletin.

However, the global agency said the stock of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) is significantly limited and that demand for the vaccine continues to outpace supply.

WHO said: “Since January 2023, 92 million OCV doses were requested by 16 countries, nearly double the 49 million doses produced during this period.

“Insufficient cholera vaccine stocks to respond to all concurrent cholera outbreaks, resulting in the suspension of preventive campaigns and a transition from a two-dose to a one-dose strategy.”

WHO also said between January and May 2024, the vaccine stockpile was entirely depleted.

“Based on the number of outbreaks and their geographic expansion, alongside the shortage of vaccines and other resources, WHO continues to assess the risk at the global level as very high, and the event remains classified as a grade 3 emergency,” it added.