Over 3,000 already dead from cholera this year, says WHO

Cholera has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide since the start of the year, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, insisting its goal of cutting global cases by 90 percent by 2030 remained in reach.

The disease killed nearly 7,900 people in 2025, making it “the deadliest year for cholera since 1999”, according to Lorenzo Pezzoli, WHO lead for epidemic-prone bacterial diseases.

While data for the first nine months of 2026 show a decline in deaths, more than 3,000 people have still died from the preventable and treatable diarrheal infection, he said, with “nearly nine out of 10 of them in Africa”.