WHO: Chief Felipe Barboza said that no one should die from cholera in the 21st century

Geneva: According to Philippe Barboza, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cholera team head, 1,300 cholera fatalities and one million cholera cases have been documented so far this year.

According to preliminary statistics, there were 810,000 and 5,900 recorded fatalities in 2024, which is a significant rise over 2023. Due to poor government reporting, these figures were underestimated. Unfortunately, this cancer was now spreading to nations like Namibia and Kenya where it had not previously existed, even though it shouldn’t be there in the twenty-first century. In several nations, the case fatality ratio exceeded one percent.

For instance, the death rate was more than 4 percent in Angola, where Dr. Barboza had just returned. Its rapid expansion to neighboring nations and other sections of Angola remained very worrying. In 2025, Angola accounted for 36% of all cases worldwide. Rapid deployment teams had been sent out by WHO and its partners, who were also setting up facilities and providing personnel training.

According to Dr. Barboza, 12,000 cases of severe cholera have been documented in Myanmar since July 2024. Conflict and climate change have made matters worse on a global scale. However, he argued, Haiti has no money left to address its own cholera crisis.

He said that WHO has 5.6 million treatment doses available for emergency responses at the end of March. More vaccine manufacturing growth was required since demand was still quite strong. More epidemics may be avoided if everyone worked together and made more investments. Dr. Barboza emphasized once again that no one should die from cholera in the twenty-first century.