More than 41,000 cases of cholera, including 314 deaths, have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this year, making it one of the largest cholera epidemics in the world, informed on Friday the World Health Organization (WHO).
After an initial peak in April 2023, about 1,000 cases were reported each week, the WHO stated, noting that larger and longer-lasting outbreaks pose additional challenges for health workers.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacillus Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global public health threat and, seen as an indicator of inequality and underdevelopment.
According to the WHO, between 1.3 and 4 million cases of cholera and between 21,000 and 143,000 deaths from cholera are reported worldwide each year. In October 2023, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo launched a plan to eliminate the disease by 2030.
As the complex health crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo has worsened since the beginning of the year, cholera cases have resurged in the country, concentrated in the conflict-affected east, the WHO said in a press release.
Dozens of militias have ravaged eastern DRC for years, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s. One such militia, the M23, has seized swaths of territory since launching an offensive in late 2021. Last year, the security worsened in the country when the M23 rebel group resumed its fight against the government.