Geneva: A World Health Organization official said on Friday that there has been an increase in cholera cases this year, particularly in places of poverty and conflict, with outbreaks and death rates rising sharply in 26 countries.
In a typical year, fewer than 20 countries report outbreaks of the disease that is spread through ingestion of contaminated food or water and can cause acute diarrhea.
“After years of decline, we are seeing a very worrying increase in cholera outbreaks around the world over the past year,” Philippe Barboza, WHO team lead for cholera, said at a press briefing in Geneva.
He said the average death rate so far this year has nearly tripled compared to the five-year average and is currently around 3% in Africa.
While most affected people will have mild or no symptoms, cholera can die within hours if left untreated.
A cholera outbreak in Syria has already killed at least 33 people, threatening the frontline of the country’s 11-year-long war and raising fear in overcrowded camps for the displaced.
Barboza also expressed concern about outbreaks in parts of Asia, including the Horn of Africa and Pakistan, where some areas have been flooded.
He said only a few million doses of vaccines were available for use before the end of this year, citing a shortage of manufacturers among the problems.
The WHO maintains an emergency stockpile of cholera vaccines.
“So it is very clear that we do not have enough vaccines to respond to acute outbreaks and even less to be able to implement preventive vaccination campaigns which is a way of reducing risk for many countries. There may be a way,” he said.
He said there is no overall estimate of the number of cholera cases worldwide due to differences in countries’ surveillance systems. -Reuters
Read also: New ‘SARS-CoV-2-like virus’ found in Russian bats can infect humans, US study says