The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday of a sharp rise in the number of cholera cases and deaths in 2023, and its head stressed that despite this, it is “a preventable and easily treatable disease.”
The latest global cholera statistics showed that the number of recorded cases increased in 2023 by 13% compared to 2022, reaching 535,321 cases, while deaths increased by 71%.
“Cholera has killed more than 4,000 people in one year,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted at a press conference, even though it is “a preventable and easily treatable disease.”
The head of the WHO’s cholera and epidemic diarrhoeal diseases team, Felipe Barbosa, said the number of cases and deaths was likely to be “underestimated”, citing a gap in diagnosis due to the large disparities in capacity between countries.
Increase in cholera epidemics
A statement by the organization explained that conflicts, climate change, insufficient drinking water and sanitation, poverty, underdevelopment, population displacement due to emerging and renewed conflicts, and natural disasters all contributed to the increase in cholera epidemics in 2023.
The organization highlighted that the geographical distribution of cholera “changed dramatically” from 2022 to 2023, as the number of reported cases in the Middle East and Asia decreased by 32%, but increased by 125% in Africa.
Ghebreyesus noted that the global risk of cholera will remain “very high” in 2024, with “22 countries currently reporting active epidemics.” Since the beginning of the year, more than 342,000 cases and 2,400 deaths have been reported.
In light of this reality, the head of the World Health Organization renewed his call to increase vaccine production.
He stated that “about 36 million doses were produced last year, which is half the quantity requested by 14 countries affected by the disease since October 2022.”
He recalled that vaccination is an “important tool,” and stressed that “drinking water, sanitation and hygiene are the only sustainable and long-term solutions.”
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The disease causes severe diarrhea and dehydration that can lead to death within hours.