Reducing Cholera Cases By 90 Percent By 2030 Requires ‘Tremendous Political Change’ In Global South

Al Jazeera: Cholera in a time of neoliberalism
Jonathan Kennedy, lecturer at Queen Mary University of London

“…[A]t the end of last year, the Global Task Force on Cholera Control — a WHO-led coalition of U.N. agencies, NGOs, and academic institutions — vowed to reduce cholera cases by 90 percent by 2030. … [Cholera e]pidemics occur because of the failure of political actors to provide the world’s poorest people with safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and rudimentary health care. … Many states in the Global South have neither the will nor the capacity to build water, sanitation, and health systems. Moreover, it is unlikely that donor countries will help because they are far more concerned with the potential threat posed by airborne diseases such as Ebola. Challenging this iniquitous neoliberal system is beyond the remit of global health actors, but as long as it prevails, their role will be limited to treating the symptoms of our sick society. In this sense, it is quite likely that unless there is a tremendous political change in the Global South, the WHO and its partners will be unable to eradicate cholera in the coming decades” (2/7).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.