Kinshasa, May 9th, 2025 (CPA) – A cholera epidemic has been declared on Monday in six provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), by the Ministry in charge of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, according to a press release from the said Ministry consulted on Thursday by CPA.
‘Given the current state of the disease, the government, through the Ministry in charge of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, is declaring a cholera epidemic in the provinces of Haut-Katanga, Tanganyika, Sud-Kivu, Nord-Kivu, Tshopo and Kongo-Central,’ has read in the statement, signed by Dr Roger Kamba, the minister responsible.
‘Samples have been taken by the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) and biological confirmation is present in several of these provinces. To date, 18,385 cases have been notified since the start of the year, including 364 deaths, giving a case-fatality rate of 2%, which is well above the rate recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) (<1%)’, has added the source. According to the press release, since the week of February 24th to March 2nd, 2025, several alerts have been notified to the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) through the National Programme for the Elimination of Cholera and Other Diarrheal Diseases (PNECHOL-MD) and the online media, in various provinces of the country including Tshopo, Nord-Kivu, South-Kivu, Maniema and Tanganyika.
Notifications of cholera cases, continued the source, exceeded the 1,000-case mark in the third epidemiological week (January 13th, to 18th 2025), and provinces with an endemic profile experienced outbreaks that spread to provinces with an epidemic profile. The Ministry in charge of health has also noted that the disease is spreading from east to west along the Congo river, that the current rainy season is causing flooding in several provinces, that political instability is leading to massive population movements in Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu, and that epidemics are occurring in neighboring countries such as Angola and Zambia, as well as cross-border movements.
Action taken
The same source has also indicated that essential emergency public health measures had been put in place through a rapid multi-sectorial response involving the community, organizations and United Nations agencies. Dr Kamba reassured the population that the government, experts from his ministry and all the partners are hard at work on the ground to contain this epidemic. He urged the population to observe individual, collective and environmental hygiene measures to protect themselves against the disease, and to contact the nearest health services in the event of any suspected case of the disease.
These measures include washing hands properly and regularly before eating, after using the toilet, before preparing food, after handling it, after coming into contact with blood or other biological fluids, avoiding eating salads or raw vegetables made from fresh fruit and vegetables, drinking water that has been boiled or purified with chlorine, and eating fruit and vegetables. Cholera is an extremely virulent disease transmitted by the ingestion of contaminated food or water, with symptoms appearing between 12 hours and 5 days after the ingestion of contaminated food or water.