Publication context: First published 30 September 2026. This archived report describes information available at the time; check newer sources for current figures and developments.
The World Health Organization says cholera deaths rose 30% in 2025 to 7,870, the highest annual toll it has recorded since 1999, even though reported cases fell by 20%.
Fewer people caught cholera last year, yet more of them died. That is the uncomfortable picture in the latest global figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), which counted 7,870 cholera deaths in 2025. It is the highest yearly total the agency has recorded since 1999.
The numbers point to something deeper than the spread of a single disease. They show where health systems are failing people who need them most.
More Deaths, Fewer Cases
Deaths climbed by 30% compared with the previous year. Over the same period, the total number of reported cases dropped by 20%, to 451,499 across 47 countries.
Those two trends moving in opposite directions matter. A falling case count would normally be good news, but a rising death toll suggests that the people who did fall ill were more likely to die, or that the outbreaks that did occur hit places with the weakest access to care.
Seven Countries, Nine in Ten Cases and Deaths
The burden was far from evenly spread. Roughly 90% of all reported cases and deaths came from just seven countries in Africa and Asia: Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen.
The WHO also noted that every one of these seven countries experienced severe population displacement. In each case, the cause was either ongoing armed conflict or extreme climate events such as floods and droughts.
Africa Bears the Heaviest Load
The WHO African Region was hit hardest. Deaths there jumped by 58% compared with the year before, and reported cases rose by 34%.
That stands out against the global trend, where cases actually declined. In other words, the worldwide drop in cases was not felt in Africa, where both cases and deaths moved sharply upward.
Why So Many People Are Dying
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection. People catch it by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It can kill quickly through severe dehydration, but it is also highly treatable with oral rehydration solutions, intravenous fluids, and antibiotics.
The problem is reaching that treatment in time. The WHO found that more than one in five reported deaths happened outside a healthcare facility, which suggests that many vulnerable people never got to medical care. When patients are treated inside a facility, the global fatality rate generally stays below the 1% level considered adequate.
The true picture may be worse than the official figures. The WHO cautioned that the real global burden is likely substantially higher. Mild cases often go unrecorded because surveillance is weak, and some places hold back reports out of fear of economic or tourism consequences.
A Bigger Vaccine Supply
There is one encouraging development. Global production of oral cholera vaccines has expanded significantly, more than doubling from roughly 30 million doses in 2022 to 80 million doses a year by 2025.
That larger supply allowed health groups to restart large-scale preventive vaccination campaigns, which had been suspended for years because of shortages.
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