ACIP recommends cholera vaccine for travelers

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously today to accept proposed recommendations for a single-dose, live, oral cholera vaccine.

The vaccine, CVD 103-HgR, was approved by the committee as a “category A” vaccination, defined as a vaccine for use on the basis of recommendations made for all patients in a specific age group or in a high-risk population.

Karen Wong

Karen Wong, MD, MPH, medical epidemiologist at the CDC, presented the cholera vaccine group’s recommendation, which called for vaccination of patients aged 18 to 64 traveling to areas with active cholera transmission. CVD 103-HgR is more specifically recommended for travelers who either have an increased risk for toxigenic Vibrio cholerae 01 exposure or those whose travel situations carry an increased risk for poor clinical outcomes due to poor availability of adequate treatment facilities. The recommendation also defined high-risk travelers as those with blood type O or those on gastric acid-suppressing therapies.

The committee ultimately motioned to strike the “high-risk” qualifiers from the recommendation and voted to recommend the vaccine for all adult travelers to cholera-endemic areas.

Wong said currently there are extremely limited data on the use of CVD 103-HgR among pregnant patients and immunocompromised patients, such as those with HIV. The recommendation does not include any language for use among pregnant women, but does not explicitly recommend against vaccinating pregnant women.

Disclosure: Wong reports no relevant financial disclosures.