GENEVA: Climate change is fuelling a global cholera upsurge, the WHO said on Friday, warning the situation was compounded by vaccine shortage and would only worsen unless it was stamped out soon.

The World Health Organisation is responding to cholera outbreaks in 29 countries, including Haiti, which has more than 1,200 confirmed cases, more than 14,000 suspected cases and more than 280 reported deaths.

This week, Haiti received almost 1.2 million doses of oral cholera vaccines.

But the WHO said that vaccine stockpiles were extremely low -- and that manufacturers were not enthusiastic about producing a vaccine chiefly aimed at some of the poorest countries in the world.

“If we don’t control the outbreak now, the situation will get worse and worse,” Philippe Barboza, the WHO’s team lead on cholera, told reporters in Geneva.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022