Global cholera deaths hit 26-year high - The Guardian Nigeria News
Despite a decline in reported cholera cases globally, the disease claimed more lives in 2025 than in any year since 1999, with 7,870 deaths recorded, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
According to WHO, 47 countries reported 451,499 cholera cases and 7,870 deaths in 2025, representing a 30 per cent increase in deaths from the previous year.
However, the organisation stressed that the figures reflected reported surveillance data and not the actual global burden, which is believed to be substantially higher because many cases go unreported.
Nigeria and six other countries: Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, accounted for about 90 per cent of reported cases and deaths.
The WHO African Region recorded the largest burden, with reported cases rising by 34 per cent and deaths by 58 per cent compared with 2024. The findings were published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record, alongside updates on meningitis and plague.
Executive Director of WHOโs Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the increase in deaths highlighted the continuing challenge of tackling cholera.
He said no one should die from the disease given the tools available for prevention and treatment.
Ihekweazu said the concentration of cases and deaths in a small number of countries showed where targeted investments in safe water, sanitation and hygiene could have the greatest impact.
He called for stronger surveillance, community engagement, vaccination and access to quality healthcare, alongside investment in water, sanitation and hygiene.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease caused by Vibrio cholerae bacteria and is transmitted through food and water contaminated with faeces, particularly where access to safe water and sanitation is limited.
Although preventable and treatable, WHO said cholera could be fatal if severe dehydrationย was not treated promptly. The report found that more than one in five reported cholera deaths occurred outside health facilities, indicating that many patients were not reaching care in time.
Among patients treated in health facilities, the global fatality rate remained below one per cent, the threshold WHO considers indicative of adequate care. However, the rate exceeded one per cent in 12 countries in 2025.
WHO also reported increased availability of oral cholera vaccines, with global production more than doubling from about 30 million doses in 2022 to approximately 80 million in 2025.
The International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision approved 71 million doses for affected countries last year, including 20 million for preventive vaccination.
On meningitis, WHO reported a 5.9 per cent decline in cases among countries that provided data for both 2024 and 2025. It said vaccination had significantly reduced meningococcal meningitis, with cases of serogroup A declining by more than 99 per cent among vaccinated populations since the introduction of the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine in 2010.
WHO said no confirmed serogroup A cases had been reported since 2017 in countries that introduced the vaccine.
A broader vaccine covering five meningococcal serogroups, Men5CV/MMCV, is now being introduced in the African region for outbreak response and preventive campaigns.
On plague, WHO said 10 countries reported suspected human cases between 2019 and 2025, with six reporting confirmed cases. A total of 3,847 suspected cases and 423 deaths were reported during the period, representing an 11 per cent case fatality rate.
The organisation stressed that continued surveillance of rodents and other animal populations, coupled with rapid outbreak response, remained essential to detecting plague early, reducing transmissionย and preventing larger outbreaks.
