Cholera Cases and Total Number of Deaths Reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), and Number of Countries Reporting, 1950-1998

Cholera was the first disease for which modern public health surveillance and reporting was carried out in an organized way. It is one of the three diseases currently reportable under the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 1969. According to those regulations, national health administrations should report the first cases of cholera on their territory to WHO within 24 hours of their being informed. This applies to both indigenous cases of cholera as well as imported cases. Cholera cases and deaths reported to WHO during the week are published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). In addition the WER provides annual summary tables of cholera cases and deaths as well as short notes on outbreaks of cholera. Reports of important outbreaks also appear on the WHO web pages under Disease Outbreak News as listed in the references. Data presented in this chapter, include reports of cholera dating back to 1949 for Asia when cases were first reported in that continent. For Africa the data began in 1970 with the acceptance of the International Health Regulations. This covers a relatively long period of time and allows recent trends in cholera incidence and mortality to be interpreted in light of past experience. The annual number of reported cases of cholera for each country is presented at the end of the chapter.