WHO says global cholera deaths rose 30% in 2025 to highest since 1999

The WHO reported 7,870 deaths in 2025, with seven countries accounting for 90% of cases and deaths

Deaths from cholera rose by 30% in 2025 to the highest level in more than 25 years even as reported cases fell by a fifth, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The WHO said 7,870 cholera deaths were reported to it in 2025, the most since 1999, while reported cases fell 20% from 2024 to 451,499. The figures were published in the agency’s Weekly Epidemiological Record.

Seven countries, Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, accounted for 90% of all reported cases and deaths from the acute diarrheal infection, which spreads through water and food contaminated by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. The WHO said all seven countries recorded conflict- or disaster-related displacement in 2025, and inadequate sanitation and lack of clean water play a significant role in the disease’s spread.

Cholera is treatable with antibiotics, oral rehydration solution and intravenous fluids, but can quickly become life-threatening if untreated. The WHO said one in five reported deaths occurred outside healthcare facilities.

No one should be dying from cholera today when we have the tools to prevent and treat this disease. The concentration of cases and deaths in a small number of countries shows where targeted investments in safe water, sanitation and hygiene could have the greatest impact.

The remark, from a WHO news release, was made by Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

The WHO also reported on two other diseases in its Weekly Epidemiological Record. Twenty-four of 26 countries in Africa’s meningitis belt reported 21,526 bacterial meningitis cases in 2025, a 6% decline from 2024, with 971 deaths, down 30% from 1,397 in 2024, for a case-fatality rate of 4.5%.

From 2019 through 2025, 10 countries reported 3,847 suspected human plague cases and 423 deaths, a case-fatality rate of 11%, with most cases in the DRC and Madagascar, according to the WHO. Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is transmitted mainly to people by infected fleas.