Emergency Response: Mapping Cholera Hot Spots in Africa

Cholera originated in Asia, but now presents a global threat.

This acute intestinal disease is biologically caused by exposure to the vibrio cholerae bacteria, but it’s fed socially by poor water and sanitation, limited health systems, crowding and poverty. With all these conditions present in abundance across the African continent, cholera outbreaks happen most frequently there relative to all other parts of the world. This leads in many cases to high numbers of deaths, high costs to health systems and regular social disruption.

Recent studies have shown that while cholera risks exist throughout Africa that burden is concentrated in a limited number of very specific places which face vastly disproportionate risks overall. Uneven distribution of the disease is both a significant problem, and an opportunity to focus efforts on cholera control more precisely than in past efforts.

As Justin Lessler and his team from Cholera Dynamics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health wrote in an article for The Lancet in March, “prioritising high-risk areas could substantially increase the efficiency of cholera control programmes.”

This year’s outbreaks are especially serious and widespread. The World Health Organization reports that 11 countries distributed across virtually all parts of Africa, from Nigeria to Somalia to Zambia, are right now in the grip of cholera outbreaks of varying size and intensity. Of the 58 total emergency health events currently being monitored in Africa, roughly 20 percent are cholera outbreaks.

Since August 2017, WHO reports 21,465 cases and 419 deaths in the cholera-affected countries.

The worst epidemics in terms of suspected case totals are happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda.

Source: https://reliefweb.int/report/malawi/emergency-response-mapping-cholera-hot-spots-africa

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Taxonomy

• Public Health
• Disease
• Water & Diseases
• Health Care