One billion people in 43 countries are at risk of cholera, the UN warned on Friday, and while the means to stop this “pandemic of the poor” are well known, the resources to implement them are desperately scarce.
“There is a pandemic that is killing the poor and we know exactly how to stop it, but we need more support and less inertia from the world community, because if we don’t act now, it will get worse,” Jérôme Pfaffmann Zambruni, head of the unit, warned on Friday. UNICEF public health emergency, during a press conference in Geneva.
“The WHO estimates that one billion people in 43 countries are at risk of contracting cholera,” said his colleague Henry Gray, one of those responsible for the World Health Organization in the fight against this plague, which is spreading rapidly in absence of adequate sanitary conditions and lack of drinking water.
Cholera causes diarrhea and vomiting and can be especially dangerous for young children.
The UN, which needs 640 million dollars to fight the infectious disease, specified that the longer it waits to increase the means of fighting, the more the situation will worsen.
The WHO stated that vaccination campaigns had been seriously hampered. To date, 24 countries have reported cholera outbreaks, up from 15 in mid-May last year.
The WHO was also forced to recommend a single dose of the oral cholera vaccine instead of two in order to save more people, despite the risk of protecting them for less time.
In total, the WHO and UNICEF – who work in close coordination to combat the bacteria – need 160 million dollars and 480 million dollars, respectively, in the next 12 months to intervene in more than 40 countries.