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UNITED NATIONS. — Use of oral vaccines is proving to be an effective tool to control outbreaks of cholera, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, adding that the deadly water-borne disease is a major public health concern from Tanzania to South Sudan, and Nepal to Yemen.
The use of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) must be both supported by local authorities and used hand-in-hand with focused, sustainable water and sanitation actions in targeted communities, the UN agency recommended in a press release.
A global stockpile of the vaccine, funded by a number of international organisations and foundations, is made available, with two million doses. In 2015, with additional funding from the GAVI Alliance, the number of doses available for use in both endemic hotspots and emergency situations is expected to rise to around three million.
There are several examples in which the vaccine has stopped cholera outbreaks in their tracks, such as in South Sudan last year, when thousands of displaced people who had found shelter in makeshift camps at UN sites were given the vaccine.
This action almost certainly averted increased illness and death among the vulnerable camp inhabitants who had been at high risk, WHO noted.
But new outbreaks are on-going in South Sudan and Tanzania, fanned by insecurity and additional displacement. Intensive control efforts are ongoing, and vaccination programmes have been rolled out to target communities at risk. — Xinhua.
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