The means to stop cholera are well known. But the resources are desperately lacking to implement them. In total, a billion people in 43 countries are exposed to this disease, was moved by the UN, which alerted this Friday to “this pandemic of the poor”.
“There is a pandemic killing the poor right before our eyes and we know exactly how to stop it but we need more support and less inertia from the global community because if we don’t act now it will get worse,” Jérôme Pfaffmann Zambruni, head of UNICEF’s public health emergencies unit, warned Friday at a press conference in Geneva.
Need $640 million
The epidemic is spreading like wildfire in the absence of adequate sanitary conditions and lack of drinking water. Cholera causes diarrhea and vomiting and can be particularly dangerous for young children. The UN needs $640 million to fight the infectious disease, but said the longer it waits to ramp up the fight, the worse the situation will get.
According to the WHO, vaccination campaigns have been severely hampered. So far this year, 24 countries have reported cholera outbreaks, up from 15 in mid-May last year. Countries that are not usually affected are now victims of the cholera vibrio and the mortality rate far exceeds the usual observed rate of 1%.
Forced cessation of prevention campaigns
Henry Gray, one of the World Health Organization (WHO) officials in charge of fighting the scourge, blamed the rise in cases on poverty, conflict, climate change and the displacement of populations they provoke, in very precarious conditions.
“As the number of countries affected by cholera increases, the resources available for prevention and care are more dispersed,” he said. The oral cholera vaccine is an example: more than 18 million doses have been requested this year but only 8 million are available, forcing prevention campaigns to stop. The WHO has also been forced to recommend a single dose of vaccine instead of two to save more people, but at the risk of protecting them for less time.
Cholera cases on the rise since 2021
“The future is bleak,” insisted Henry Gray. In total, the WHO and Unicef, which are working in close coordination to fight the bacteria, need 160 and 480 million dollars respectively over the next 12 months to intervene in more than 40 countries. Although cholera can kill within hours, it can be treated with simple oral rehydration and antibiotics for more severe cases.
But many people do not have timely access to such treatment. Epidemics can be prevented by ensuring access to clean water and improving surveillance. But the lack of funds for a rapid response will cost lives that could have been saved, Henry Gray pointed out. “The overall solution is a long-term investment in wastewater infrastructure,” he added. Cholera cases have steadily declined over 10 years, but the trend reversed in 2021.