How CDC Works to End Cholera

A CDC worker and a woman take a water sample. CDC

For more than half a century, CDC has worked with partners around the world to prevent, detect and respond to cholera, testing which prevention and control methods work best and promoting them.

In the field

When asked, CDC lends its expertise to local government and nongovernmental partners investigating cholera outbreaks in:

• cities and rural communities;
• schools;
• health care facilities;
• prisons;
• humanitarian emergencies.

It also trains laboratory workers to identify the cholera bacterium, and helps teach communities how to prevent the disease.

Prevention

• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH): CDC works with partners to improve them worldwide, against cholera and other diarrheal diseases — see its work on global hygiene.
• Vaccines: with countries and global partners, CDC helps use oral cholera vaccines to prevent and control the disease.

The global effort

CDC is a founding member of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC), a partnership of more than 50 governments, nongovernmental organizations, universities and UN agencies coordinating the effort to control cholera and end cholera deaths. CDC experts sit on its working groups on oral cholera vaccines, laboratory techniques and WASH.

In October 2017, the task force launched Ending Cholera: A Global Roadmap to 2030, a plan to cut cholera deaths by 90% by 2030, protect millions of people from illness and death, reduce outbreaks, and speed up safe water and sanitation for those who need them most.

Sources

Based on "CDC at Work: Cholera," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The stock photo on the original page is left out.