THE World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a spike in cholera in several regions of the world, with almost 195,000 cases and over 1,900 deaths reported in 24 countries since the start of this year.

According to WHO, cases have been reported across countries in Africa, East Asia, America, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by intestine infection with the bacterium “vibrio cholerae”. The disease is highly infectious and primarily spreads through contaminated water and food.

The Eastern Mediterranean region reported the highest number of cases, followed by the African region, the Americas, the Southeast Asia, and the European region.

There were no reported cases in the Western Pacific region, WHO said in a bulletin issued on Wednesday.

Africa has the second-highest cases, with 92,789 cases from 14 countries. A distant margin from what was found in America, where about 3700 cases from one country were recorded as the third highest from an affected region.

The UN health agency said it exhausted its global stockpile of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) by March but was able to exceed “the emergency target of five million doses in early June for the first time in 2024.”

This data, WHO said, combines both suspected and confirmed cases of the disease.

In South-East Asia, WHO said, about 1,400 cases have been reported from two countries, and in Europe, 105 cases from one country.

Currently, more than 1,900 death cases have been reported globally due to the disease outbreak.

For death cases recorded, Africa ranks highest with 1,698 deaths, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean with 256 deaths.

America has recorded 13 deaths, South-East Asia has four deaths, and Europe has reported only one death.

 “There were no reported cases in the Western Pacific region,” WHO noted in its bulletin.

In May, the most recent data available, about 46,364 new cholera cases were reported from 19 countries across these regions.

This, WHO noted, is a 58 percent increase from what was obtainable in the previous month.

“In the same period, 185 cholera-related deaths were registered, representing a 37 percent decrease compared with the previous month,” WHO stated in the bulletin.

The highest number of fatalities was recorded in Africa, with 130 deaths from 10 countries.

According to WHO, the highest number of deaths was reported from Comoros, which had 54 deaths; Ethiopia, with 28 deaths; the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 18; Zimbabwe, with 12 death cases; and Tanzania with 10 death cases.

WHO said these countries have also reported the region’s highest number of cholera infections within the past five months.

Globally, there have been several new requests for cholera vaccine, the WHO noted in the bulletin.

However, the global agency said the stock of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) is significantly limited and that demand for the vaccine continues to outpace supply.

WHO said: “Since January 2023, 92 million OCV doses were requested by 16 countries, nearly double the 49 million doses produced during this period.

“Insufficient cholera vaccine stocks to respond to all concurrent cholera outbreaks, resulting in the suspension of preventive campaigns and a transition from a two-dose to a one-dose strategy.”

WHO also said between January and May 2024, the vaccine stockpile was entirely depleted.