Cholera case fatality rate
Situation and trends
The case fatality rate (CFR) is a measure of the severity of a disease and is defined as the proportion of reported cases of a specified disease or condition which are fatal within a specified time.
With proper and timely treatment, the case fatality rate should remain below 1%. However, many countries report CFRs which are much higher; in 2011, 24/58 countries (41%) reporting cholera had a CFR exceeding 1%, and 5 countries reported a CFR >5%. Globally, the overall CFR was 1.33%.
CFRs over 30% have been observed among vulnerable groups living in high risk areas. They reflect limited access to proper health care for the most vulnerable people and insufficiencies in health-care systems, including limited capacity of the surveillance system to trigger a timely response.