Oral Cholera Vaccine is Success in Guinea

VOICE OF AMERICA

An oral vaccine for cholera has proved to be highly effective and could change the way future outbreaks are controlled. The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says the vaccine was used during a 2012 outbreak in Guinea.

The study of the oral cholera vaccine known as Shanchol was conducted by Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders. Cholera is a water-borne disease causing severe diarrhea. It’s usually found in countries with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water. The disease usually is treated with oral rehydration therapy.

Epidemiologist Rebecca Grais said, “I think what’s interesting and what this study adds and that hasn’t been shown up until now is the possibility to include oral cholera vaccine into the arsenal of the epidemic response to cholera. This is the first time that the vaccine was used in Sub-Saharan Africa in response to an epidemic.”

The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and Grais said they dispel a number of myths about cholera control.

There was a fear that use of the vaccine would pull resources away from treatment — that it would be too logistically complicated — and potentially not have an impact. But the study concluded that the vaccine is effective.

The vaccine is administered in two doses spaced 14 days apart. It had an 86 percent protection rate in Guinea. More than 316,000 doses were administered over six weeks.

Grais said one advantage of an oral vaccine, as opposed to an injection, is that it can be administered by nonmedical personnel. The World Health Organization is now stockpiling Shanchol — one of two oral cholera vaccines it has approved for use. The study says Shanchol is better to use in developing countries because it’s cheaper and easier to manufacture, transport and store.