WHO: Global cholera deaths increased by 71%
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Key takeaways:
- Roughly 535,000 cases of cholera were reported in 2023, leading to more than 4,000 deaths globally.
- A vaccine shortage has made it more difficult to prevent the spread of cholera in recent years, WHO reported.
WHO this week announced that cholera cases increased by 13% and cholera deaths increased by 71% globally in 2023.
“Conflict, climate change, inadequate safe water and sanitation, poverty, underdevelopment and population displacement due to emerging and re-emerging conflicts and disasters from natural hazards all contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks last year,” WHO said in a press release.
The agency noted that the number of cases and deaths so far this year are lower than they were at the same time in 2023.
According to WHO’s 2023 cholera report, more than 535,321 cases of cholera were reported in 2023, up from 472,697 in 2022. The 4,007 reported cholera deaths were a significant increase over the 2,349 reported in 2022.
Cases were reported in 45 countries in 2023, an increase from 44 in 2022 and 35 in 2021. There was a 32% reduction in cases in Middle Eastern and Asian countries but a 25% increase in Africa, according to WHO.
Among countries reporting outbreaks, nine had outbreaks of more than 10,000 cases — nearly double the number of “very large outbreaks” reported annually between 2019 and 2022.
Some cholera outbreaks have been ongoing for several years, including the nearly 15-year-long outbreak in Haiti. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which interrupted surveillance, vaccination and treatment programs, the number of cases has skyrocketed, WHO said.
As a result of the increased demand for oral cholera vaccines, the international group that manages emergency stockpiles of vaccines has moved from a standard two-dose regimen to a one-dose regimen for cholera, WHO noted, saying the 35 million doses shipped in 2023 were not enough to meet global need.
“The global cholera crisis has caused a severe shortage of cholera vaccines,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said in a post on X, noting that about half of the needed doses were produced last year.
Tedros urged manufacturers to accelerate efforts to produce vaccines and make shots available at affordable prices.
Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance in 2023 reported that the 48 million doses of vaccine administered globally in 2021 and 2022 were 10 million more doses than were needed in the previous decade combined. As a result, Gavi predicted at the time that cholera vaccine supplies likely would remain limited through 2025 but supply would start to meet demand in 2026.
“While vaccination is an important tool, safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene remain the only long-term and sustainable solutions to ending cholera outbreaks and preventing future ones,” Tedros said.
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