Climate change is fuelling a global cholera upsurge, the WHO said Friday,
warning the situation was compounded by vaccine shortages and will only worsen
unless it is stamped out soon.
اضافة اعلان
The
World Health Organization is responding to cholera outbreaks in 29
countries, including Haiti, which has more than 1,200 confirmed cases, more
than 14,000 suspected cases and more than 280 reported deaths.
This week, Haiti received almost 1.2 million doses of oral cholera vaccines.
But the WHO said that vaccine stockpiles were extremely low -- and that
manufacturers were not enthusiastic about producing a vaccine chiefly aimed at
some of the poorest countries in the world.
"If we don't control the outbreak now, the situation will get worse and
worse," Philippe Barboza, the WHO's team lead on cholera, told
reporters in Geneva.
He said fatality rates are extremely high for most of the countries for
which the UN health agency has data.
Cholera is contracted from a bacterium that is generally transmitted through
contaminated food or water.
It causes diarrhoea and vomiting, and can be especially dangerous for young
children.
"The factors which drive cholera are still the same: poverty,
vulnerability and people who do not have access to clean water," Barboza
said.
These are amplified by conflict, humanitarian crises and natural disasters,
which reduce access to drinking water.
- Vaccine shortage
-
"But this year, we have a factor which is even more important: the
direct impact of climate change, with a succession of major droughts,
unprecedented floods in certain parts of the world, and cyclones which have
amplified most of these epidemics," he said.
Barboza said that while there had been big epidemics in certain countries
before, they had not happened simultaneously, as now.
Although cholera can kill within hours, it can be treated with simple oral
rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.
But many people lack timely access to such treatment.
Outbreaks can be prevented by ensuring access to clean water and improving
surveillance.
"It is not acceptable in the 21st century to have people dying of a
disease which is very well-known and very easy to treat," said Barboza.
Around 36 million cholera vaccine doses were produced this year.
Barboza said that making these doses was not very attractive to
manufacturers as it is "a vaccine for poor countries".
But he insisted that the mortality rate could be reduced by prioritising
timely access to medical aid.
"The fight against cholera is not lost. We can win it," he said.
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