Category Archives: Cholera

UN warns of ‘epic suffering’ in Sudan and appeals for $4bn in aid

Posted on by

Ten months of armed conflict in the country has displaced nearly 11 million people and left half the population facing hunger

There is “epic suffering” in Sudan says the UN, where fighting between rival military factions since April has created the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and raised fears of state failure.

On Wednesday, the UN appealed for $4.1bn (£3. 25bn) to meet humanitarian needs, amid warnings by the UN’s World Food Programme that people are starving to death in areas cut off by fighting.

Continue reading...

Cholera cases soar globally amid shortage of vaccines

Posted on by

Resurgence classified as grade 3 emergency by WHO, with southern Africa and Haiti among those hardest hit

Cholera cases soared last year, according to preliminary data from the World Health Organization, which recorded 4,000 cholera deaths and 667,000 cases globally.

The numbers surpassed that of 2022, and the WHO has classified the global resurgence of cholera as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level.

Continue reading...

Zimbabwe bans large gatherings as threat of cholera outbreak grows

Posted on by

Cases are rising in many parts of the country and critics are blaming chronic water shortages and poor sanitation systems

The Zimbabwean government has banned large gatherings in parts of the country and increased surveillance at ports of entry in an effort to contain a rise in cholera cases.

With 100 suspected deaths, most of them in September, and nearly 5,000 possible cases of the water-borne disease in more than 41 districts, including Harare, authorities fear a repeat of the 2008 epidemic where 4,000 people died.

Continue reading...

Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women

Posted on by

Only a third of countries with climate crisis plans include access to sexual, maternal and newborn health services, UNFPA report finds

Only a third of countries include sexual and reproductive health in their national plans to tackle the climate crisis, the UN has warned.

Of the 119 countries that have published plans, only 38 include access to contraception, maternal and newborn health services and just 15 make any reference to violence against women, according to a report published by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Queen Mary University of London on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO

Posted on by

Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

Continue reading...

Children face acute risk amid Malawi’s deadliest cholera outbreak

Posted on by

The disease, which has killed 1,500 people since last March, has been aggravated by heavy rains and an overburdened health system

Malawi’s cholera outbreak is the country’s deadliest on record, claiming more than 1,500 lives, according to the UN.

More than 50,000 cases have been detected in the landlocked country in south-east Africa since an outbreak was declared in March last year, triggered by two devastating tropical storms that hit the region. Almost 200 children have died.

Continue reading...

Haiti receives its first batch of cholera vaccines to tackle deadly outbreak

Posted on by

Campaign to stem the spread of the disease takes place against a backdrop of political chaos, gang violence and fuel shortages

Haiti has received its first shipment of cholera vaccines since an outbreak was declared more than two months ago.

The first of the 1.1m doses, delivered last week, will be distributed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas in the hope of stemming the spread of the disease, which has been aided by political instability and lawlessness.

Continue reading...

Dismay as key cholera vaccine is discontinued

Posted on by

Exclusive: halt to production of Shanchol vaccine alarms WHO amid ‘unprecedented’ global outbreaks

The manufacturer of one of only two cholera vaccines for use in humanitarian emergencies is to halt production at the end of this year, just as the world faces an “unprecedented” series of deadly outbreaks, the Guardian has learned.

Shantha Biotechnics, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, will stop production of its Shanchol vaccine within months and cease supply by the end of 2023, causing alarm among health officials.

Continue reading...

Pakistan town blames deadly cholera outbreak on government neglect

Posted on by

Residents of Pir Koh say poor water provision and a dirty water tank led to 26 deaths, the majority among children under seven

Two weeks ago, Ruqiyya Bibi fell sick. The two-year-old was vomiting constantly; her father, Mohammed Iqbal, took her to a basic health unit in Pir Koh, a impoverished town with a population of 40,000 in the mountains of Balochistan, south-western Pakistan.

Iqbal was told at first that his daughter had malaria but when treatment did not help, he took her to another doctor who said she had a blood condition.

Continue reading...

Ethiopian drought leading to ‘dramatic’ increase in child marriage, Unicef warns

Posted on by

With hunger across Horn of Africa and 600,000 children out of school, ‘desperate’ parents push more girls into early marriage

Drought-afflicted areas of Ethiopia are seeing “dramatic” increases in child marriage as the worst climate-induced emergency for 40 years pushes people to the brink, the head of Unicef has said.

Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought hunger, malnutrition and mass displacement to millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti.

Continue reading...

Refugees hit hardest as deadly floods sweep across continents

Posted on by

Death toll rises as storms continue to rip through communities, destroying homes and livelihoods

As heavy rains and floods dominate headlines around the world, displaced people and those living in conflict zones are among the worst affected.

Wind and heavy rain from monsoons and typhoons has bombarded much of Asia. There have also been downpours and flash floods in parts of Latin America and Africa.

Continue reading...

Ten years after the Arab spring, Yemen has little hope left

Posted on by

Racked by war, cholera and now coronavirus, the country faces the world’s worst famine in decades

Ten years after the rage and hope of the Arab spring filled the public spaces of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital has become a curiously quiet place.

Traders and customers alike shuffle through the streets of the old city, ground down by the repression of the Houthi rebel occupation and the economic hardship caused by the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition blockade.

Continue reading...

Agencies fear hidden cholera deaths in Yemen as Covid-19 overwhelms clinics

Posted on by

Thousands of deaths potentially missed as patients avoid health centres, with both diseases set to peak in coming weeks, warn NGOs

Aid agencies are warning that thousands of people in Yemen could be dying undetected from cholera as people are too frightened to seek treatment in health facilities overwhelmed by coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases in the war-torn country are due to peak in the coming weeks, but Oxfam has warned that health centres are seeing an unexpected drop in cholera cases, ahead of August’s rains when cholera will also increase.

Continue reading...

‘It became part of life’: how Haiti curbed cholera

Posted on by

When cholera broke out just months after a devastating earthquake, Haiti’s health system was pushed to the brink. The extraordinary rearguard action that followed offers an object lesson in dealing with a public health crisis

Marie Millande Tulmé was at work in a prison when she received a call confirming her fears: the gruesome sickness spreading rapidly across her nation was indeed cholera.

The head nurse for Haiti’s Central Plateau region at the time, Tulmé was investigating rumours that prisoners were getting violently ill and that two had died. “I thought: ‘Haiti will perish,’” she says, recalling her reaction when Haiti’s national laboratory phoned with the news. “Because I knew that cholera was grave. That it spreads easily.”

Continue reading...

Haitians urge judges to find UN culpable for cholera outbreak that killed thousands

Posted on by
  • Supreme court consider whether to take up Laventure v UN
  • UN peacekeepers introduced disease after 2010 earthquake

Victims of the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti, which killed at least 10,000 people and infected hundreds of thousands more, are petitioning the US supreme court on Tuesday to hold the UN accountable for having brought the disease to the stricken country.

The nine supreme court justices will meet in conference to discuss whether to hear Laventure v UN as one of their cases of the new term. The petition goes to the heart of the question: should the world body be answerable in domestic courts for the harm it causes people it is there to serve?

Continue reading...

Cyclone Idai crisis deepens as first cases of cholera confirmed in Mozambique

Posted on by

Five people test positive for waterborne disease in flooded port city of Beira amid warnings outbreak will spread

The first cases of cholera have been reported in the cyclone-ravaged Mozambican city of Beira, complicating an already massive and complex emergency in the southern African country.

The announcement of five cases of the waterborne disease follows days of mounting fears that cholera and other diseases could break out in the squalid conditions in which tens of thousands have been living since Cyclone Idai struck on 14 March, killing at least 700 people across the region.

Continue reading...

‘Yet another killer for children left starved by war’: cholera grips Yemen

Posted on by

In the last two weeks, 1,000 young people a day have been infected with the disease

Yemen is seeing a sharp spike in the number of suspected cholera cases this year, with 1,000 children a day infected in the last two weeks alone, agencies said.

More than 120,000 cases have been reported, with 234 deaths in the country, which has been at war for four years this month. Almost a third of the 124,493 cases documented between 1 January and 22 March were children under fifteen. Increasing rates of malnutrition among Yemen’s children have left them more prone to contracting and dying from the disease.

Continue reading...

Cyclone Idai death toll passes 750 with more than 110,000 now in camps

Posted on by

Devastated areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi brace for the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and malaria

Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers try to restore electricity and water and prevent an outbreak of cholera.

In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446, with 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi.

Continue reading...