Cholera in the Americas - Situation summary
Since epidemiological week (EW) 1 of 2016 until EW 27, a total of 22,556 cholera cases have been recorded from three countries in the Americas: Ecuador (1), Haiti (21,661), and the Dominican Republic (894). Haiti alone registered 96% of the total cases in 2016 in the Region of the Americas. Table 1 shows the number of reported cholera cases in the Americas during 2015 and table 2 shows the cholera cases reported in selected countries from 2010 to 2016.
On 25 May 2016, the Ecuador IHR National Focal Point reported the confirmation of a cholera case from the city of Machala in the province of El Oro. The case was confirmed by the National Institute of Public Health and Research (INSPI) as Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1, serotype Ogawa, biotype El Tor nontoxigenic. The strain is susceptible to ampicillin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole - trimethoprim.
In the Dominican Republic in 2016 as of EW 25 there were 894 suspected cholera cases reported and 17 related deaths. These reported cases and deaths exceed the reported cases and deaths in 2014 (603 cases including 11 deaths) and in 2015 (546 cases including 15 deaths) (Table 1 and 2).
In Haiti since EW 1 to EW 27 of 2016, a total of 21,661 suspected cholera cases and 200 related deaths have been reported. The number of cases reported in the first four weeks of 2016 exceeded the total cases reported in the same period of both 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1). Additionally, between EW 19 and EW 27 of 2016, a similar transmission pattern observed in 2013 is seen with number of cases and deaths exceeding those reported during 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1 and Table 2).