Cholera: The disease, the Yemen crisis and the vaccine

Since the Haiti cholera outbreak began in October 2010, months after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, more than 800,000 cases have been reported, including about 9500 deaths. Although the numbers have decreased dramatically over the years, the island nation still sees thousands of cases annually. Today, cholera outbreaks are reported in Kenya, Nigeria, the DRC , Tanzania and most notably Yemen where more than 360,000 suspected cases, including 1800+ deaths have been reported in the past three months. In fact, according to the humanitarian organization, Oxfam, the number of people with cholera in Yemen is now the largest ever in any country in a single year since records began, topping the previous annual record of 340,311 in Haiti in 2011. Amesh Adalja, MD joined me to discuss cholera. Dr. Adalja is a Senior Associate with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.