Cholera – Has Climate Change Given New Life to an Old Enemy?

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Few diseases are as fast-moving and as horrific as cholera. Fiction may focus on the internal bleeding caused by Ebola, while movie scripts about zombie apocalypses pull from what’s known about rabies.

But cholera can infect someone in the morning and kill them by the evening. It can carry off a child before a parent can even register the little one is suffering from more than a run-of-the-mill tummy bug. Worse still, the diarrhea and vomiting caused by the infection carry the killer germs right back into the water supply that is its source.

Cholera never really goes away, but a recent upsurge has hit countries across the African continent from Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia up to Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. It’s infecting people in Pakistan, Lebanon, and Syria and is making a comeback in Haiti. A billion people are at risk, the World Health Organization says. Climate disasters and a weakening of public health resources are to blame.

Most measures used to strengthen public health, in general, can help fight cholera, says Amanda McClelland, senior vice president at Resolve to Save Lives.

In this episode of One World, One Health, listen as McClelland tells us about the gravity of the current multi-country outbreak of cholera. She explains that measures like clean water, good sanitation, vaccination, and access to basic healthcare can all help prevent cholera and stop ongoing outbreaks.