from ANYANG GARANG in Juba, South Sudan
South Sudan Bureau
JUBA, (CAJ News) – MORE than 1 500 people have died from South Sudan’s largest and longest cholera outbreak.
The deaths are from nearly 100 000 suspected cases across 55 counties in nine states and three administrative areas.
The country’s multi-sectoral response -featuring surveillance, deployment of rapid response teams, medical supply prepositioning, case management, Infection Prevention and Control, Water/Sanitation/Hygiene promotion, reactive vaccination campaigns using oral cholera vaccines, and response coordination – has helped mitigate the risks to communities and saved hundreds of lives.
This is according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It reports that the weekly number of new cholera cases has drastically reduced from an average of 1 000 cases at the peak of the outbreak in December 2024 to a record lowest of 114 in the last week of September 2025.
The number of infected counties declined from 55 to seven in the same reporting period.
There has been no newly infected county since June 2025.
“The outbreak, which began in September 2024 has been sustained for one year, testing the country’s experiences, defining new frontiers to interrupt transmission and providing new lessons for future similar outbreaks,” said Humphrey Karamagi, WHO representative for South Sudan.
It is the worst health crisis since the attainment of independence in 2011.
The cholera outbreak adds to the conflict that erupted in 2013 in the world’s newest country.
– CAJ News