‘The world has run out of oral cholera vaccine’

THE world’s oral cholera vaccine stocks have run dry while 16 countries, most of them in Africa, endure outbreaks of the waterborne disease.

Now, public health experts are pushing manufacturers to urgently speed up production.

“The lack of vaccines “directly affects Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams as we are trying to respond to an extraordinary number of cholera outbreaks, including in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe”, said MSFs international medical co-ordinator, Daniela Garone.

Africa continues to have a larger proportion of people dying from reported cholera than any other part of the world.

According to Save the Children, cholera cases increased more than four-fold in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique from 2022 to 2023.

As at February 26, 2024, Zimbabwe had 26 189 suspected cholera cases, 2 702 confirmed cases, 25 448 recoveries, 71 confirmed deaths and 485 suspected deaths, according to latest statistics from the Health ministry.

The number of cases increased from 26 250 to over 95 300, with more than 1 600 deaths in the three nations, making it one of the worst cholera epidemics in decades.

Cholera is also endemic in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Burundi, Cameroon, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Nigeria. The vaccines currently being manufactured have already been claimed.

All the doses in production until mid-March have already been allocated, and the demand for doses keeps growing, Garone said.

She said: “Today, we're still desperate for more manufacturers to jump in and urgently produce oral cholera vaccines and it's essential that more technical support be provided for new manufacturers to speed up regulatory processes and scale up production capacity.”

The shortage has in the recent past been a problem that has forced the International Co-ordinating Group on vaccine provision to suggest one-dose vaccination instead of two in 2022.

This temporary measure was meant to stretch out supplies. However, the world finds itself in a similar predicament without new manufacturers approved.

Garone pictures this as a letdown for communities that are at a greater risk.