Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 13:00–14:00 (CEST)
Background
Cholera remains one of the world’s most persistent epidemic threats and a marker of inequity, vulnerability, and inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2025, WHO reported more than half a million cholera cases and over 7,000 deaths across 32 countries. The global cholera emergency, classified as Grade 3 since 2023, transitioned to a Protracted Grade 3 emergency in 2025, reflecting the continued scale and persistence of transmission.
Effective surveillance is central to cholera prevention, preparedness and response. Timely, actionable data help countries and partners detect outbreaks earlier, monitor transmission, identify high-risk areas, guide laboratory confirmation, and target interventions, including vaccination, water, sanitation and hygiene, case management, and risk communication.
However, surveillance remains constrained in many affected settings by underreporting, delayed detection, limited laboratory capacity, fragmented data flows, insecurity, population movement, and weak subnational reporting. These challenges are particularly acute in humanitarian and fragile contexts, where health systems are overstretched and access to affected communities may be limited.
New approaches are expanding the potential of cholera surveillance. Global data workflows, regional risk monitoring, field surveillance, geospatial analysis, and serological approaches can complement routine case-based data, strengthen risk assessment, and support earlier operational decision-making. Their value depends on being practical, scalable, and integrated into country surveillance systems.
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Objectives
- To highlight practical innovations in cholera surveillance and discuss how they strengthen early detection, risk assessment, and outbreak response.
- To explore WHO’s global cholera data system, surveillance experience from the Eastern Mediterranean Region, field adaptations in Sudan, and emerging evidence on the use of serology to better understand cholera dynamics.
Agenda and Speakers
Introduction: EPI-WIN Science and Knowledge Translation, WHO
Welcome remarks: Why cholera surveillance innovation matters now: Lorenzo Pezzoli, Team Lead, Epidemic Bacterial Diseases, WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE)
Cholera surveillance in EMRO: regional risks, constraints and innovations: Muhammad Tayyab, Medical Officer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Outbreak Control, WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
Surveillance under pressure: lessons from Sudan's cholera response: Sudan representative - TBC
Interactive Q&A with speakers
Closing and next EPI-WIN: EPI-WIN Science and Knowledge Translation, WHO