According to a recent World Health Organization report, the cases of cholera are on the rise world wide. According to the organization, no more than 20 countries report an outbreak in a given year, but in this year it has already been 26. Additionally, the case fatality rate is higher than normal, too. This year it was 3% in Africa vs the previous norm of about 1%.
Cholera is a disease associated with poor sanitation, death from it is typically linked to poor sanitation and lack of access to functional emergency medical care. Both conditions are tightly linked to poverty. The lockdowns instituted ostensibly to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated both logistics and economics, especially in poor regions of the world, so I would be very surprised if somehow it turned out that those lockdowns did not have a part to play in these worsening cholera statistics. In short, one pandemic - or the response to it - effectively gave a boost to another one.
Cholera outbreaks surging worldwide, fatality rates rising
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Cholera outbreaks surging worldwide, fatality rates rising, WHO official says
Emma Farge, International Business Times, 30 September 2022
