Deaths from cholera rose by 30 per cent in 2025 even though fewer cases were reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on 30 September. Forty-seven countries reported 451,499 cases and 7,870 deaths, the highest annual death toll reported to WHO since 1999, and the real burden is thought to be much higher because many cases go unreported.
Seven countries, Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, accounted for about 90 per cent of reported cases and deaths. The African region carried the largest burden, with cases up 34 per cent and deaths up 58 per cent on 2024. The figures appear in WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record.
Cholera spreads through food and water contaminated with faeces and can kill quickly through dehydration, although it is preventable and treatable. More than one in five reported deaths happened outside health facilities. Inside them the fatality rate was below one per cent globally, but above that threshold in 12 countries.
"No one should be dying from cholera today when we have the tools to prevent and treat this disease," said Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, calling for targeted investment in safe water, sanitation and hygiene with better surveillance, vaccination and care.
Production of oral cholera vaccine more than doubled between 2022 and 2025, from about 30 million to about 80 million doses a year. Last year the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision approved 71 million doses, including 20 million for preventive vaccination, which resumed this year after a suspension of more than three years.
Photo: Tom Kirn, Ron Taylor, Louisa Howard / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Down To Earth
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