Emergencies

Cholera cases and deaths

One of WHO’s core functions is to gather and disseminate morbidity and mortality data to help inform health programmes in efforts to improve health across the world.

This page provides links to dashboards which display cholera cases and deaths officially reported by Member States to WHO on an annual basis, in an aggregated manner, since 2000.

The dashboards illustrate trends in the cholera situation through interactive summary visuals. They complement the in-depth contextual analysis of the cholera situation published annually in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER).

All WHO Member States are encouraged to report annually to WHO on the occurrence, or absence of occurrence, of cholera. Member States where no cholera cases were detected are encouraged to report annually on this absence of cases (i.e. “zero reporting”). 

Absence of cholera reporting is not equivalent to reported absence of cholera cases.  Member States, in particular target countries of the Global Taskforce on Cholera Control (GTFCC), are urged to undertake cholera reporting.

Cholera annual figures might be subject to reporting biases including lack of comparability of reporting criteria between countries, lack of stability of cholera surveillance systems over time, over-reporting, under-reporting, and absence of reporting.

The GTFCC, its partners, and cholera-affected countries are engaged in strengthening cholera surveillance, an essential step to progress towards cholera control and, ultimately, elimination.