(Geneva) The explosion of cholera cases in the world is fueled by climate change and the situation unprecedented for several decades is further aggravated by the shortage of vaccines, the WHO warned on Friday.
National health authorities and UN agencies are currently fighting this “disease of poverty” in 29 countries, explained Dr. Philippe Barboza, WHO manager in the fight against this scourge linked to the lack of access to drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities.
Lack of vaccines
“The map is almost red everywhere,” said the epidemiologist, citing among others Haiti, Pakistan, Lebanon, or even Syria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi.
“If we don’t control the epidemic now, the situation will get worse,” he insisted.
In Haiti, where only a few weeks ago we were delighted to have had no cases in three years, the situation has deteriorated very quickly in a context of gang violence. They make access to care, which is already precarious, even more difficult.
PHOTO RAMON ESPINOSA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
A youth suffering from cholera is helped upon arrival at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 27, 2022.
A young man with cholera is helped upon arrival at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 27.
The disease has already claimed more than 280 lives there.
The country has received 1.2 million doses of the oral cholera vaccine, and the vaccination campaign is due to begin in the coming days.
But the global stock of vaccines built up to deal with emergencies is almost exhausted and the 36 million doses manufactured each year have already been allocated, explained Doctor Barboza, to journalists in Geneva. And for lack of a sufficient number of laboratories, only about 2.5 million doses are manufactured each month.
According to him, it will take several years before the capacity can be significantly increased.
He also notes that this serum is “much less attractive” to manufacturers, because it is “a vaccine for poor countries”.
In the meantime, the WHO has taken the exceptional step of recommending a switch from two-dose treatment – which protects for several years – to single-dose treatment, the only way to treat more people.
Climate change
“The factors causing cholera are always the same,” recalled Philippe Barboza.
“But this year, we have an even more important factor: the direct impact of climate change, with a succession of major droughts, unprecedented floods in certain parts of the world, and cyclones which have amplified most of these epidemics” , he added.
Conflicts like in Syria or the economic crisis like in Lebanon are also propitious.
The WHO official pointed out that the death rate for the current outbreak is extremely high for most countries for which the UN health agency has data.
It is not acceptable at 21e century that people are dying of a disease that is very well known and very easy to treat.
Dr Philippe Barboza, WHO Cholera Control Officer
Although cholera can kill within hours, it can be treated with simple rehydration and antibiotics for more severe cases.
But many people do not have timely access to such treatment.
“The fight against cholera is not lost. We can win it,” said Dr Barboza, stressing that rapid access to care was crucial to lowering the death rate.