A cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone has killed almost 300 people and affected more than 20 000. Without support to sustain and expand the response operation, as many as 32 000 cases could be expected this year.

WHO and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation have established a cholera control command centre to coordinate the response to what has turned into a national emergency. WHO has brought in experts in epidemiology, surveillance, case management, logistics, social mobilization, water and sanitation from other WHO offices as well as from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B) in Bangladesh, and the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency.