By Feston Malekezo:
World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved an oral simplified vaccine, Euvichol-S, for cholera.
The vaccine’s efficacy is similar to that of vaccines that are in use.
WHO says the new vaccine has a simplified formulation, giving it the leeway to increase production capacity.
This comes at a time cholera response initiatives continue to be affected by a critical shortage of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCVs).
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“The new vaccine is the third product of the same family of vaccines we have for cholera in our WHO prequalification list. The new prequalification is hoped to enable a rapid increase in production and supply which many communities battling with cholera outbreaks urgently need,” said Rogerio Gaspar, Director of the WHO Department for Regulation and Prequalification, in a statement.
The WHO prequalification list has Euvichol and Euvichol-Plus inactivated oral cholera vaccines.
Commenting on the development, co-Chairperson for the Presidential Taskforce on Covid and Cholera Winfred Chalamira Nkhoma said cholera vaccination, in addition to other preventive measures, has helped to increase the proportion of the population that has acquired immune protection against new infections and helped to cut short the continuing spread of new infections.
However, Chalamira Nkhoma said OCVs were used in Malawi and neighbouring countries such as Zambia in reaction to a cholera outbreak rather than as a proactive vaccination which WHO is pushing for.
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“Therefore, the coming of a third approved cholera vaccine will help to increase the availability of cholera vaccine doses for the advance vaccination (pre-emptive vaccination) of populations as well as for use when outbreaks happen.
“Malawi is one of the countries that will benefit in both ways. Malawi is in the process of developing a National Multi-sectoral Cholera Control Plan towards the 2030 WHO cholera control goal, and will include preventive cholera vaccination as a key pillar, in addition to a second pillar, to increase [access to] safe water and sanitation,” he said.
Since January 2023, OCVs requests have surged, with 79 million doses requested by 14 countries, Malawi inclusive.
This is double the 40 million doses available during this period. The global stockpile of vaccines was depleted until the beginning of March.
As of 15 April this year, the stockpile has 2.3 million doses, which is below the global stockpile target of five million doses.
According to WHO, Vaccines provide the fastest intervention to prevent, limit and control cholera outbreaks.
Currently, 23 countries are reporting cholera outbreaks, with most severe impacts seen in the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
