Cholera, the scourge of the Victorian era, is staging a comeback fuelled by conflict and climate breakdown. In 2024, there were 804,721 cholera cases and 5,805 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, a near 50% increase from the 535,321 cases and 4,007 deaths in 2023. Numbers have been surging since 2021 and scientists say official figures are probably very conservative. They estimate between 1.3m and 4m cases, and a range of 21,000 to 143,000 deaths from cholera globally each year.
Already in 2025, six countries – Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola and Ghana – have requested doses from the global stockpile of cholera vaccines to help contain outbreaks.
