NEW DELHI: The number of reported cholera cases globally increased by 13% and deaths by 71% in 2023 compared to 2022, the WHO said.
Over 4,000 people died last year from a disease that is preventable and easily treatable, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its latest global cholera statistics for 2023.
Forty-five countries reported cases, increasing from 44 the previous year to 35 in 2021. Thirty-eight per cent of the reported cases were among children under five years of age.
India, in 2023, reported 649 total cases, including imported ones. However, it did not report the number of deaths due to cholera, an acute intestinal infection that spreads through contaminated food and water.
While 360 Indian men were affected by cholera in 2023, 289 women suffered from the disease, the report said. India did not report the number of cases tested through rapid diagnostic tests. However, through culture/PCR, India reported 9,370 cases, of which 505 were found to be approved last year, the data showed.
In 2024, India reported a total of 3,805 cholera cases, of which 125 were confirmed till July 28, the WHO said.
Lamenting the death toll due to cholera, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "Conflict, climate change, unsafe water and sanitation, poverty and displacement all contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks.”
Also, population displacement due to emerging and re-emerging conflicts and disasters from natural hazards all contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks last year, the report said.
The geographical distribution of cholera changed significantly from 2022 to 2023, with a 32% decrease in cases reported from the Middle East and Asia and a 125% increase in Africa. Many countries in Africa reported a high proportion of community deaths, indicating gaps in access to treatment.
This is the first year that multiple countries have reported deaths from cholera, which occurred outside of health facilities, known as ‘community deaths’. In five out of 13 reporting countries, over a third of cholera deaths happened in the community, highlighting severe gaps in access to treatment and the need to strengthen this area of response.
Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and Somalia reported large outbreaks of over 10,000 suspected or confirmed cases. Ethiopia, Haiti, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe added to the tally in 2023, WHO said.
Preliminary data show that the global cholera crisis continues into 2024, with 22 countries reporting active outbreaks.
Although the number of cases reported so far in 2024 is lower than last year, 3,42,800 cases and 2,400 deaths have already been reported to WHO across all continents as of August 22.
The increased demand for cholera materials such as oral cholera vaccines (OCV), diagnostic tests, and essential medications like oral rehydration salts and intravenous fluids for rehydration persists into 2023, posing a global challenge for disease control efforts.
Since October 2022, the International Coordinating Group (ICG), which manages emergency vaccine supplies, has suspended the standard two-dose vaccination regimen in cholera outbreak response campaigns, adopting a single-dose approach to reach and protect more people given limited supplies.
Despite the low stockpile of OCV, a record 35 million doses were shipped last year, with the one-dose strategy in effect. While vaccination is essential, safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene remain the only long-term and sustainable solutions to ending cholera outbreaks and preventing future ones.
WHO considers the current global risk from cholera as very high and is responding with urgency to reduce deaths and contain outbreaks in countries around the world.