Seven countries and 10 major health partners affiliated with the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) came together in a powerful show of multisectoral commitment to end the global cholera emergency. The convening – a side event in observance of the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) – took place as cholera continues to ravage communities across the world, with vaccine supplies unable to meet escalating needs.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – in partnership with the GTFCC – co-hosted the side event, urging immediate collective action with only six years left to meet the GTFCC’s 2030 global roadmap goals.
Titled Uniting Against the Global Cholera Emergency: Empowering Communities, Facilitating Multisectoral Actions, and Galvanizing Resources, the event took place at IFRC’s office in Geneva, Switzerland, and gathered representatives from national governments, international non-governmental organizations, donor and partner organizations, and UN agencies.
Global health leaders focused on the critical need for sustainable funding to advance safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, strengthen disease surveillance in cholera hotspots, and scale up local oral cholera vaccine manufacturing. Case management and continuous community engagement for infection prevention were also discussed.
Health ministers and national representatives from Bangladesh, Lebanon, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, and Zimbabwe, speaking on behalf of cholera-affected countries, underscored the urgency of a coordinated multisectoral approach, particularly given the compounding impacts of climate-related factors, economic insecurity, conflict, urbanization, population growth, and population displacement.
Cholera, a severe diarrheal disease, that also affects children, has been a persistent global health challenge, specifically affecting communities with limited access to clean water and sanitation. In recent years, the world has witnessed an acute resurgence of the long-standing cholera pandemic, with 23 countries currently reporting outbreaks, along with deaths numbering in the thousands.
In his opening remarks as co-host, IFRC Secretary General, Mr. Jagan Chapagain, said: “We cannot accept such a staggering loss of life to a disease that is entirely preventable and treatable with the tools we have in the 21st century. This event serves as a stark reminder that there is much more work to do as we approach 2030. We must urgently refocus our efforts and elevate cholera control to the forefront of global dialogues while backing it with tangible investments at the grassroots level.”
The cholera upsurge has placed pressure on health systems, and the demand for vaccines has far exceeded available supplies, which prompted agencies to instate emergency measures to manage the available stockpile in 2022.
Mr. Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, emphasized, “We have significantly increased vaccine supplies over the past decade, and the stockpile is currently replenished after depleting at the start of 2024 after responding to cholera emergencies. With the new simplified Oral Cholera Vaccine, we are on track to reach 50 million doses in 2024, a 30% increase from 2023. He added, in reference to Gavi’s efforts to raise funds for its work from 2026 to 2030, including financing the global OCV stockpile, preventive and emergency vaccination, and cholera diagnostics: “The replenishment is for all of us, and I invite you to be ambassadors for that.”
WHO Deputy Director General and Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Michael Ryan, called cholera “a diabolic poster child of climate change, of poverty, and of social injustice at every level.” Dr Ryan also reminded attendees that cholera is “a pandemic that has never ended,” noting that the ultimate solution to ending the disease lies in universal access to safe water and sanitation. “The cholera vaccine is a poor substitute for a clean glass of water,” he said.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Mr Ted Chaiban highlighted the importance of community engagement in ensuring a cholera-free future, calling for “additional resources and immediate actions to ensure access to safe WASH for all communities,” given that “2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water and 3.6 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation.”
Ms. Christine Toudic, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, called for further mobilization of partners to confront cholera, a disease primarily affecting communities in countries with the most fragile health systems. Ms. Toudic announced that the French government’s commitment will be reaffirmed in Paris on June 20, 2024, at a high-level event convened jointly with the African Union, Gavi, and Team Europe partners for the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) and the 2026-2030 Gavi replenishment.
As the world confronts the ongoing challenges of seemingly never-ending cholera outbreaks, coordinated global efforts and sustained investments are critical. The GTFCC and its partners remain dedicated to empowering communities, facilitating multisectoral actions, and galvanizing resources to end cholera, all of which was confirmed during the side event.
This reality was underscored by the involvement of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in the event.
