The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Friday that the death rate from cholera outbreaks, currently affecting 22 countries, will rise to 2% by 2021, a rate it says will be maintained in 2022 and will continue into 2023.
In the past week alone, new outbreaks were registered in three countries, WHO’s head of the fight against cholera, Philippe Barboza, said at a press conference, reiterating the risks that this increase in the incidence of the disease poses to the public global health. “By 2022, more than 50% of countries reported cholera outbreaks compared to previous years, including some that had been disease-free for years”he stressed.
Some outbreaks have been reported in areas affected by violence and conflict, such as Haiti or Syria, and in Africa, the center of the epidemic is in Malawi, a country in the south experiencing a deadly wave and where there is a shortage of vaccines. At least 1,400 people have died, of the 45,000 cases recorded since March 2022 in the country, which the UN ranks as one of the poorest in the world, according to the UN.
In Mozambique, the cholera outbreak that has been plaguing some countries in the South African region since the end of last year has led to the deaths of 37 people, out of 5,260 cases recorded by the authorities, the Portuguese Republic’s Health Minister announced speaking country this week.
In neighboring South Africa, health authorities also announced this week that a 24-year-old man has died of cholera, breaking a record of 15 years without deaths from this infectious disease in the country. A total of five cases have been reported in South Africa since early February.
The WHO’s cholera official reiterated this Friday that about a billion people in the world are threatened by the spread of the disease and warned that vaccine supply remains low, with about 37 million doses available for this year. This means that in many countries vaccination campaigns have had to replace the two recommended doses in areas at risk of outbreaks with just one, Philippe Barboza complained.
In view of the spread of the disease, the WHO asked donor countries and institutions for the first time this year for a specific fund of USD 25 million (about EUR 23.65 million) to combat the disease.
Source: DN
