OREANDA-NEWS   More than a billion people are at risk of contracting cholera. Over the past week, three countries have reported new outbreaks of this disease, and their total number has grown to 22. This was announced on Friday at a briefing in Geneva by the head of the group on cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) Philippe Barbosa.

"According to our estimates, more than 1 billion people in 43 countries are directly at risk of cholera," he said. "In the last week alone, three countries have reported new outbreaks. At the moment, 22 states located in five WHO regions are fighting cholera outbreaks," Barbosa stated.

He recalled that 50% more countries faced cholera outbreaks last year than in 2021. "Unfortunately, this trend continues. Poverty, conflicts and natural disasters continue to fuel outbreaks, which are now exacerbated by climate change," the WHO specialist stressed.

Barbosa also drew attention to the fact that "the mortality rates are the highest in the last ten years." "The global mortality rate was almost 2% in 2021, which is significantly higher than acceptable. Preliminary data suggest the same for 2022 and 2023," concluded the head of the WHO group.