Cholera has killed 2,471 people in 291,272 reported cases worldwide so far in 2026, according to a monthly update published October 27 by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), well below the 496,907 cases and 5,703 deaths recorded by the same date in 2025. The global decline masks sharp rises in Nigeria and Cameroon and a jump in deaths over the past month, with 501 fatalities reported since September 28 compared with 140 in the previous reporting period.

According to the ECDC update, 42,136 new cases were reported since September 28, slightly fewer than the 46,153 logged between August 26 and September 28, but deaths more than tripled between the two periods. New cases came from Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Zambia.

Nigeria is now the largest outbreak by case count. Using Africa CDC data as of October 11, ECDC lists 70,553 cases and 452 deaths in Nigeria this year, against 21,302 cases and 496 deaths over the same period of 2025, with 20,263 new cases and 114 deaths added since September 13 alone. Cameroon, which reported no cholera in the comparable period last year, has 2,712 cases and 79 deaths in 2026, including 2,381 cases and 67 deaths in the latest period. Zambia has 1,773 cases and 37 deaths, up from 505 cases and 10 deaths a year earlier.

The DRC remains the country with the most deaths: 50,923 cases and 1,338 deaths this year, down from 58,750 cases and 1,747 deaths at the same point in 2025, with 9,236 cases and 288 deaths in the latest period. The steepest declines are in South Sudan, where 7,683 cases this year compare with 76,781 cases and 1,251 deaths a year earlier, and Angola, down from 32,186 cases and 849 deaths to 6,940 cases and 132 deaths. In Yemen, figures from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean office as of October 13 show 8,034 cases and 27 deaths in 2026, against 84,532 cases and 230 deaths by the same date in 2025. Several large countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sudan and Haiti, have not reported updated figures since September 28, ECDC noted.

Why it matters

Cholera is preventable and treatable, and the death toll tracks access to clean water and prompt care rather than the bacterium itself. WHO’s cholera fact sheet, updated September 29, says the disease “can be fatal within hours if untreated” but that most people can be treated successfully with prompt oral rehydration solution, and that the case fatality rate in treatment centers should remain below 1%. The latest-period figures from ECDC imply fatality ratios of about 2.8% in Cameroon (67 deaths among 2,381 cases) and about 3.1% in the DRC (288 among 9,236), well above that benchmark.

Vaccine supply is recovering after years of shortage. WHO says only one-dose regimens of oral cholera vaccine have been used since October 2022 because of a global shortfall, but preventive campaigns resumed in 2026 with 20 million doses allocated in February. The fact sheet also notes that the 451,499 cases and 7,870 deaths reported to WHO by 47 countries in 2025 sit far below researchers’ estimates of 1.3 million to 4.0 million cases and 21,000 to 143,000 deaths a year. The 2017 global roadmap aims to cut cholera deaths by 90% and eliminate the disease in up to 20 countries by 2030.

What to watch

WHO’s most recent standalone global update, the June 30 edition, recorded 29,610 new cases from 16 countries in May, a 43% rise on April, and 271 deaths, up 30%, with the Eastern Mediterranean Region reporting the most cases followed by Africa. ECDC’s October data show that growth has since concentrated in West and Central Africa, led by Nigeria and Cameroon, while the large 2025 epidemics in South Sudan, Angola and Yemen have receded. The next monthly ECDC update and any WHO allocation of preventive vaccine doses to the growing outbreaks will show whether that shift holds.

The caveats

ECDC compiles its tally from Africa CDC, WHO regional offices and national sources with different cut-off dates, so the global total mixes figures as of October 11, October 13 and October 27, and it is not the same series as WHO’s annual count. Year-on-year comparisons are affected by which countries reported in each period: the 2026 total excludes recent data from several countries that have not updated since late September. For the EU/EEA, ECDC says cholera remains rare and travel-associated, with 16 imported cases in 2024 and 12 in 2023, that the risk for travelers is low, and that vaccination is advised only for travelers at higher risk, such as emergency and relief workers.

This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a qualified clinician. Corrections: email the editor using the address on the Contact page.