World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said the number of cholera cases decreased globally by 60 per cent in 2018.
The organisation disclosed this in a statement issued from its headquarters in Geneva entitled: “Cholera Prevention and Control Report.”
The report pointed to an encouraging trend in cholera prevention and control in the world’s major hotspots, including Haiti, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
It affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if left untreated. WHO estimates that each year, cholera infects one million to four million people and claims up to 143,000 lives.
The statement noted that there were 499,447 cases of cholera and 2,990 deaths in 2018, reports from 34 countries showed.
It stated that while outbreaks were still ongoing in many countries, the caseload represented significant downward trend in cholera transmission that had continued into 2019.
