Cholera
An acute diarrhoeal disease caused by ingesting water or food contaminated with Vibrio cholerae, closely linked to inadequate safe water and sanitation.
How it spreads
Faecally contaminated water and food; risk is highest in crowded settings without clean water and toilets (disasters, conflict, camps).
Common symptoms
Most infections are asymptomatic or mild; a minority develop profuse watery (“rice-water”) diarrhoea and vomiting that can cause severe dehydration within hours.
When to seek care
Dry mouth, sunken eyes, poor skin turgor, very little urine, drowsiness or weakness — seek urgent rehydration. Kidney and dialysis patients are at higher risk from dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
Prevention & treatment
Safe water (boiled or treated), cooked food, hand hygiene, safe sanitation; oral cholera vaccine for affected areas and high-risk travellers as locally advised. Treatment centres on oral or intravenous rehydration.
Unknowns & ongoing research
Global oral vaccine supply is limited and allocation is coordinated internationally; reported case numbers depend on national surveillance capacity.
Global disease data
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory (annual estimates or officially reported figures; global and WHO-region level). Estimates carry uncertainty intervals; reported counts reflect national surveillance capacity and are not the true number of infections.
Related WHO notices
WHO Disease Outbreak News · Last successful update on this site: 2026-11-12 01:10 UTC
No WHO notices retrieved yet (the scheduled update has not run or the source is temporarily unreachable).
Official sources & interactive data
- WHO fact sheet: Cholera · Source link checked: 2026-10-23
- WHO Disease Outbreak News
