Cholera Outbreak Kills 6,800 People Across Africa
(MENAFN) A devastating cholera epidemic has killed 6,854 people across the African continent this year, representing a dramatic escalation from 2023 figures, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced Thursday.
The continental health agency's latest data reveals 297,394 confirmed infections spanning 23 nations, with a case fatality rate of 2.3%—a grim statistic underscoring the severity of the crisis.
Yap Boum II, deputy incident manager at the Africa CDC, disclosed during a remote press briefing from Namibia that there is an increase of almost 50,000 cases compared to last year, in the two months to the end of the year.
He issued an urgent warning that infections could intensify throughout the remainder of 2024 if immediate intervention strategies fail to materialize, particularly as heavy rainfall batters outbreak zones.
Angola and Burundi face the most critical situations, where crumbling sanitation infrastructure and severely limited clean water access have created ideal conditions for the waterborne pathogen to spread.
"There is an escalation of cholera in Burundi, while Angola is experiencing an exponential second wave," he said.
While South Sudan, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have registered declining transmission rates in recent weeks according to Africa CDC monitoring, these three nations continue shouldering the heaviest disease burden across the continent.
The bacterial disease spreads through ingestion of contaminated water or food supplies.
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