Echoing the bleak outlook, WHO data indicates that by May last year, 15 countries had reported cases, but by mid-May this year “we already have 24 countries reporting and we anticipate more with the seasonal shift in cholera cases,” said Henry Gray, WHO’s Incident Manager for the global cholera response.

Mozambique and Malawi reported as high as 90,000 people affected in the first three months of 2023.

Southeastern Africa is particularly badly affected, with infections spreading in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The development follows the destructive passage of Cyclone Freddy in February and March this year, leaving 800,000 people in Malawi and Mozambique internally displaced and disrupting healthcare.

Problems of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation are major causes of these epidemics, which are worsened in cases of armed conflict.

The WHO pointed that resources to face this situation are too insufficient; $640 million are needed to fight the infectious disease, and the longer we wait to increase the means to fight it, the faster this disease will worsen.

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