AFRICA/GUINEA - Control and prevent outbreaks of cholera with a highly effective oral vaccine

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

New York (Agenzia Fides) - An oral cholera vaccine proved to be 86 percent effective in controlling the disease during a recent outbreak in Guinea. Researchers with Epicentre, the research arm of the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and the Guinean Ministry of Health say their findings support using the vaccine to contain future cholera. The results of the study are the first showing the vaccine provides almost immediate protection. "To get vaccinated against this deadly disease can and should be one of the measures to be put in place when there is an outbreak of an epidemic, along with other measures of prevention and control", said one of the researchers.
In Guinea, public health authorities administered some 316,000 doses of the vaccine, called Sanchol, in two rounds in the coastal districts of Boffa and Forecariah over a six week period in 2012. The coverage rate in both communities was over 75 percent. The vaccine dramatically reduced disease transmission. Most of the confirmed cases of cholera were from a local outbreak in a small community with low immunization rates. In 2010, the World Health Organization added oral cholera vaccine to its recommendations for prevention and control of the disease. An emergency stockpile was created in 2013. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 24/06/2014)


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