Angola announces a cholera epidemic after 12 people have died

The Ministry of Health (MINSA) of Angola proclaimed a cholera outbreak on Friday evening, with 12 fatalities reported since the first case was confirmed on Tuesday, according to a bulletin shared with Xinhua.

On Friday at 6 p.m. local time, a total of 119 cholera cases had been recorded. The laboratory has confirmed 14 cases, while 12 samples are still undergoing analysis.

In the last 24 hours, 24 new cholera cases were detected, with 20 of them being concentrated in Cacuaco Municipality, the epicenter of the pandemic. With a population exceeding 1.2 million, Cacuaco is a suburban region in the capital province of Luanda, Angola.

53% of the 119 cases reported are female, while 47% are male. Of the twelve fatalities, eleven were recorded in Cacuaco.

A cholera case is defined in the bulletin as “a patient with severe or extreme dehydration, or death due to acute watery diarrhea, with or without vomiting, in individuals over the age of two in areas where cholera is present.” An officially recognized case is “a suspected case where the cholera vibrio has been isolated in stool samples.”

Symptoms of cholera were initially observed in a patient on December 31, 2024, according to a timeline chart in the bulletin.