Emergency cholera medical \u200bsupplies for several African countries have become stuck in a logistical quagmire caused by the Iran \u200cwar, aid officials told Reuters, raising concerns about preparations ahead of the high-risk rainy season.<\/p>\n
The stocks stranded in Dubai warehouses are contingency supplies placed in cholera-prone countries including Chad and Sudan ahead of the rainy months starting from May \u200bto curb any future outbreak of the fast-spreading, potentially fatal diarrhoeal disease.<\/p>\n
Both the World Health Organisation \u200b(WHO) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies told\u00a0\u2060Reuters\u00a0that some of their African cholera supplies were stuck in a Dubai backlog. They are trying to either \u200bfly them out – at 70% above the normal rate – or buy replacements.<\/p>\n
The kits create mini field hospitals \u200bfor thousands of people with rehydration treatments as well as chlorine to treat sewage and drinking water to prevent further spread.<\/p>\n
“We don’t know if the kits will come in time and it will be more costly and delayed,” the IFRC’s \u200bDanielle Brouwer said. Five cholera kits to treat 3 000 people a month intended for Chad, which hosts \u200bcamps for Sudan’s war refugees, are among those affected as well as tents for cholera patients in South Sudan, she \u200cadded.<\/p>\n
Last year was exceptionally bad for cholera with more than 600 000 cases in 34 countries and 8 000 deaths globally, the WHO said. So far in 2026, the number of cases is down by about 50% versus 2025 but the agency warned against complacency.<\/p>\n
“A disruption of the supply chain will have dramatic consequences \u200bbecause we’re talking (about) an \u200bexplosive disease,” said WHO’s \u2060Lorenzo Pezzoli, team lead for epidemic bacterial diseases.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t have the time or the resources to control it in a matter of days or even \u200bhours, you would have an extreme contamination.”
\nWith the Strait of Hormuz shut amid \u200bIranian attacks \u2060linked to nearly a month of United States Israeli strikes, competition to use alternative overland or air routes is creating congestion and soaring costs, the IFRC said.<\/p>\n
Many African countries like Chad do not produce their own medicines and rely \u2060fully \u200bon imports. One doctor said there have been no cholera \u200bcases this year so far but that, if they do return, there is only enough medicine for about 100 people in the \u200beastern province of Ouaddai.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20679,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30138","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Many African countries like Chad do not produce their own medicines.","published_date":"","news_description":"Many African countries like Chad do not produce their own medicines.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30139,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30138\/revisions\/30139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}