The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday published global cholera statistics for 2023, showing a 13% increase in cases and 71% in deaths compared to the previous year.
"Over 4,000 people died last year from a disease that is preventable and easily treatable," the WHO said in a statement, noting that 45 countries reported cases.
According to the preliminary data, 38% of the reported cases were among children under age five.
While conflicts, climate change, inadequate safe water and sanitation, poverty, underdevelopment, and population displacement, disasters from natural hazards contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks last year, the agency said the geographical distribution of cholera changed significantly from 2022 to 2023.
It said that a 32% decrease in cases reported from the Middle East and Asia, and a 125% increase in Africa, adding that 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'," it added.
In 2023, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and Somalia continued to report significant cholera outbreaks, with over 10,000 suspected or confirmed cases. Ethiopia, Haiti, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe also reported new outbreaks.
The data indicated that the global cholera crisis persists into 2024, with 22 countries currently reporting active outbreaks. While the number of cases reported thus far is lower than during the same period last year, 342,800 cases and 2,400 deaths have already been reported to WHO across all continents as of Aug. 22.
The WHO said it considers the current global risk from cholera "very high" and lamented that the request for $50 million to respond to cholera outbreaks in 2024 has not yet been fulfilled.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press briefing, said that the global cholera crisis has caused a "severe shortage" of cholera vaccines.
Between 2021 and 2023, more doses were requested for outbreak response than in the entire previous decade, Tedros said.
He added that about 36 million doses were produced last year, "only half the amount requested by 14 affected countries."
He reminded that the International Coordinating Group, which manages emergency vaccine supplies, has suspended the standard two-dose vaccination regimen since October 2022 and adopted a single-dose approach to reach and protect more people with limited supplies.
"There is currently only one manufacturer of cholera vaccines, EUBiologics, and we thank them for the work they are doing to expand production," he said. "We urge other manufacturers planning to enter the market to accelerate their efforts, and to make doses available at affordable prices."
