(MENAFN) The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an urgent alert Friday as cholera epidemics fueled by warfare and economic hardship spiral out of control worldwide, creating an unprecedented public health emergency.

Devastating new statistics from the WHO's latest Disease Outbreak News reveal 409,000 confirmed cholera infections and 4,738 fatalities recorded across 31 nations from January 1 through August 17, 2025. Alarmingly, six countries have documented mortality rates surpassing the critical 1 percent threshold.

Regional data exposes stark geographic disparities in the crisis. The Eastern Mediterranean Region leads in total case numbers, while the African Region bears the heaviest death toll from the waterborne disease.

WHO officials warn that armed conflicts, massive population displacement, environmental catastrophes, and climate-related disasters are accelerating cholera's deadly march. Rural communities and flood-ravaged territories with crumbling infrastructure and severely restricted medical services face the gravest threats. These transnational factors have transformed outbreaks into increasingly intricate emergencies that defy traditional containment strategies.

The global health agency emphasizes that ensuring access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation facilities, and adequate hygiene practices represents the sole viable long-term strategy to terminate the ongoing cholera catastrophe and prevent future epidemics. Given the unprecedented scale, devastating severity, and deeply interconnected characteristics of current outbreaks, WHO assesses the probability of additional transmission within nations and across international borders as extremely elevated.

WHO's comprehensive response framework calls for reinforced disease surveillance systems, enhanced patient care protocols, expanded Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programs, accelerated immunization drives, and strengthened international cooperation to deploy coordinated public health interventions across affected regions.

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