Reported cholera cases in travelers declined after notification criteria in 2011, highlighting ongoing public health challenges.
From 2005 to 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s port health stations (PHSs) received 37 reports of travelers with suspected or confirmed cholera. Most reports (29/37, 78%) occurred before 2012, with the majority linked to the 2010 Haiti outbreak. The median age of travelers was 34 years (interquartile range: 21-59 years), and nearly all (35/37, 95%) arrived by air. Seventeen (46%) cases were laboratory-confirmed as toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1, serotype Ogawa; 16 (94%) patients with confirmed cholera were hospitalized. No deaths were reported. Following the publication in 2011 of notification criteria for communicable diseases in travelers, health department notifications to PHSs of cholera cases declined. Continued coordination with public health partners is important to ensure timely evaluation and follow-up of travelers with suspected cholera. Clinicians should obtain travel histories and consider cholera in recent travelers with severe watery diarrhea who have been in outbreak or endemic areas.
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Nguyen et al. (2025) studied this question.