Extreme weather. A lack of lifesaving vaccines. Africa’s cholera crisis is worse than ever

By SEBABATSO MOSAMO, FARAI MUTSAKA and GERALD IMRAY
Associated Press

LILANDA, Zambia (AP) — Extreme weather events have hit parts of Africa relentlessly in the last three years, with tropical storms, floods and drought causing crises of hunger and displacement. They leave another deadly threat behind them: some of the continent’s worst outbreaks of cholera. In southern and East Africa, more than 6,000 people have died since late 2021. And in what’s become a perfect storm, there is also a global shortage of cholera vaccines, which are needed only in poorer countries. In Zambia’s capital, one mother watched her young son die. The vaccine doses that could have saved him arrived just days later.