Cholera Outbreak in the Kasaï Oriental Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 2018: The Case Fatality Rate in Mbuji-Mayi City and in the Rural Area

Cholera remains the major public health problem in the world. Cholera is endemic in DRC especially in its east part. In the Kasai Oriental province, cholera is epidemic area which registered major epidemic cyclically with high case fatality rate. The last one in 2018 started in Mbuji-Mayi city but later affected the whole province during 45 weeks with 5854 total suspected cases registered including 277 deaths (CFR: 4.7%). Our main objective was to describe this outbreak focusing on its higher CFR. We conducted quantitative descriptive study using data from the provincial line listing. Cholera was defined according to national and WHO case definition. Analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Epi-info7. Men were more affected (contracting or dying of) by cholera in the province. The proportion of men affected in rural area as well as the proportion of death was higher than in Mbuji-Mayi city. The outbreak started in Mbuji-Mayi with around CFR: 27.3% as well as in the rural area with CFR: 23.5% after three weeks. CFR was also high among men in Rural area as well as among persons aged 15years and above. The remote health zone situated in rural area registered the highest CFR. These were Cilundu and Kabeya-Kamwanga.