Sudan’s cholera crisis: How war turned a preventable disease deadly

Cholera is an ancient disease, but it is also one of the most preventable and treatable infectious diseases known to medicine. With safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, timely surveillance, vaccination and rapid access to treatment, countless infections and deaths can be avoided. Yet Sudan’s devastating cholera outbreak of 2024 and 2025 demonstrated how quickly those protections can collapse when war destroys the systems that keep communities safe. According to the World Health Organi