In 2018, several cholera outbreaks were declared in West and Central Africa. Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria were particularly affected, with more than 45,000 cases and more than 900 deaths registered. Cholera is indeed endemic to this region, especially to the Lake Chad Basin, where poverty and displacement of people due to insecurity worsen the situation.

Right now, we are again entering the cholera season in the region. In Cameroon, where cholera cases have been rising since May 2019 and there is an outbreak declared, MSF teams are once more mobilising to support the response of the MoH.

Yet cholera is a preventable disease and we now have tools to limit the spread of an outbreak. Epidemiology is one of them, involving early monitoring of the outbreak to quickly identify the first cases, as well as investigation to determine the most vulnerable people and enable an effective response in low resource settings.