“The map is threatened (by cholera) everywhere,” said Dr. Philippe Barboza from the World Health Organization in Geneva via Zoom.
Available data indicate cases of infection in about 30 countries, while on average fewer than 20 countries have reported infections over the past five years.
Undo recent achievements
“The situation is quite unprecedented because not only are we seeing more outbreaks, but these outbreaks are larger and deadlier than what we’ve seen in years past,” said Dr. Barboza. WHO Team leader for cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases.
“These rising numbers of cholera outbreaks come after several years of regular declines in cases and deaths.”
dr Barboza explained that all “usual factors” contributed to the global cholera surge in 2022, not the least of which was conflict and mass displacement.
In addition, there are the “very visible effects” of climate change, he emphasized.
“Most of these major outbreaks, and the fact that they occur simultaneously — making the situation much more complex — are a direct effect of the increase in adverse climate issues.”
The cholera crisis has spread across the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, accompanied by “major floods, unprecedented monsoons (and) a series of cyclones,” said the WHO cholera expert.
Daina Denja takes the cholera vaccine during UNICEF’s cholera vaccination campaign in Misili village, Chikwawa District, Malawi.
Focus on floods in Pakistan
Many other countries have also been affected, including Haiti, Lebanon, Malawi and Syria, which are experiencing large outbreaks.
In Pakistan, which has had sporadic cases of cholera in recent years, more than 500,000 cases of watery diarrhea have been reported this year after devastating summer floods, but “less than a few thousand” laboratory-confirmed cases of cholera have been reported.
Triple threat from La Nina
Equally worrying is the WHO’s assessment that the situation “will not change quickly” in 2023, as meteorologists have forecast that the La Nina climate phenomenon is likely to persist for a third straight year.
Natural disasters associated with La Nina are prolonged drought and rains and an increase in hurricanes, “so we’re very likely to see (a) situation similar to what we saw in early 2022,” said Dr. The affected areas were probably in eastern and southern Africa, the Caribbean and Asia.
As part of the WHO’s emergency response to the cholera outbreak in Lebanon, the first shipment of cholera kits (medicines and supplies) arrived from the WHO Hub Dubai over the weekend to support the Ministry of Health’s efforts to contain the cholera outbreak.
bottlenecks worldwide
Although cholera is preventable, there is still a global shortage of vaccines, with South Korea and India alone as manufacturers already reaching the “maximum production” of 36 million vaccines per year.
A South African initiative to manufacture the vaccines there is underway, but it could take “a few years” to materialize, said Dr. Barboza. He explained that vaccines are so scarce that the International Coordinating Group (ICG) had to decide in October to reduce its global vaccination strategy from two doses to one dose to combat cholera outbreaks.
Despite the lack of vaccines, the WHO official stressed that compared to other diseases that require ventilators or specialized intensive care units, cholera is “easily treated”, but only if patients can be given intravenous fluids or antibiotics quickly.
disease of poverty
According to the WHO, there are 1.3 to four million cases of cholera each year and 21,000 to 143,000 deaths from the disease worldwide. The disease is an acute diarrheal infection caused by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium.
“Cholera is clearly a disease of poverty, of vulnerability, it is the most vulnerable part of the population in any country that is most at risk, and for one very simple reason: it is simply because they do not have access to clean water water and basic sanitation,” said Dr. Barboza.
