This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Cholera vaccine effective post-outbreak
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Vaccination against cholera was beneficial post-outbreak and may aid in the control of cholera outbreaks in endemic and non-endemic settings, according to researchers from the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea.
To determine the number of cholera cases that may have been prevented by different response times, vaccination coverage and doses, the researchers pooled data on cholera outbreaks from three sites in Zimbabwe, India and Tanzania.
If half of the population in Zimbabwe had been vaccinated and had there been a rapid response in place during the 2008-2009 outbreak that led to 98,591 cholera cases and 4,288 deaths, 40% of cases and deaths may have been prevented.
In addition, a significant number of cases may have been prevented in India and Tanzania, yet the effect would have been less significant, according to the researchers. “We found that the number of cholera cases prevented by reactive mass vaccination campaigns depends on the size and shape of the outbreak curve,” they wrote.
In another study published in the same issue of PLos ONE, researchers examined the effectiveness of the killed oral cholera vaccine post-outbreak in Vietnam during 2007-2008. The study cohort included 54 case-control pairs admitted to one of five hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam, for acute diarrhea.
Results indicated that the vaccine was 76% effective at protecting against cholera after adjusting for raw vegetable intake and not drinking boiled or bottled water most of the time, according to the researchers. “This is the first study to report on the use of killed oral cholera vaccine in an outbreak situation,” the researchers wrote.
In an accompanying editorial, Edward T. Ryan, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, wrote that these findings go along with the latest 2010 WHO recommendations stating that vaccination against cholera should be used in endemic settings and in reactive situations, but that data for such use are lacking and needed.
“These reports are significant and will contribute to the discussion on the role that the cholera vaccine could play in both short- and long-term response plans. What role cholera vaccine will play, if any, is still uncertain, and even if cholera vaccine is incorporated into response plans, many logistic hurdles would remain,” Ryan said.
For more information:
- Anh DD. PLoS Negl Trop Dis.2011;doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001006.
- Reyburn R. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2011;doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000952.
- Ryan E. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2011;doi:10.1371/journal/pntd.0001003.
 |
Follow InfectiousDiseaseNews.com on Twitter. |