Cholera is a contagious infectious diarrheal disease, the severe form of which can be fatal within hours if not treated immediately. This strictly human disease is caused by Vibrio cholerae, a curved Gram-negative bacillus with a unique polar flagellum that gives it the high mobility characteristic of this bacterium.According to WHO reports, between 100,000 and 300,000 new cases of cholera have been reported worldwide each year over the last ten years. However, these figures underestimate the scale of the disease due to problems of access to care, inadequate epidemiological surveillance systems and under-reporting. Of the 724,108 cases and 17,386 deaths from cholera reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) between 2002 and 2006, over 94% of cases and 97% of deaths were linked to epidemics that occurred in Africa.