Cholera Source Areas in DRC

A set of priority health zones were identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Congolese Ministry of Public Health and its partners, as areas where cholera outbreaks re-emerge or persist in inter-epidemic periods, in the country.

These health zones are considered as “sanctuary areas” or “cholera source areas” of the disease, in the Congolese National Plan.

 
Eight cholera-source areas have been identified in the D.R.C.:
  • Bunia (Lake Albert), in Province Orientale;
  • Goma, in North Kivu province;
  • Bukavu, Uvira, and Baraka, in South Kivu province;
  • Kalemie, Kasenga and Bukama, in Katanga province.
Kalemie, Uvira and Baraka constitute the cholera epidemics primary source zones in Katanga Province and South Kivu.
 
Sources of cholera infection in Bukama and Kasenga are less predictable as the intensity of the occurrence of cholera epidemics in their areas depends on the intensity of cholera cases in Kalemie. 
 
Bunia (Lake Albert) is an isolated cholera source in the northern part of the Country and is most likely being contaminated by sources across the border in Uganda.