CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Preventive cholera vaccination programs will restart worldwide after nearly four…
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Preventive cholera vaccination programs are set to restart worldwide after being halted for almost four years due to the impact of the pandemic a shortage of vaccinesthe World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
In a joint statement, the WHO, vaccine alliance GAVI and the United Nations Children’s Fund said supplies of oral cholera vaccines in the global stockpile they manage had improved to almost 70 million doses last year.
The vaccines are being distributed for free to countries that need them, but they were only allowed to be used in response to outbreaks rather than preventative campaigns after a shortage was announced in 2022 due to a surge in demand. Supplies fell to 35 million doses and countries struggled with outbreaks many more questions were then available.
WHO, GAVI and UNICEF said an initial allocation of 20 million doses is now being deployed, with 3.6 million doses going to Mozambique, 6.1 million to Congo and 10.3 million planned for delivery to Bangladesh.
“Global vaccine shortages forced us into a cycle of responding to cholera outbreaks rather than preventing them. We are now in a stronger position to break that cycle,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Cholera is a diarrheal disease caused by bacteria in water. Outbreaks often occur as a result of poverty, conflict or climate crises, as health facilities are destroyed, access to clean water is disrupted or floods spread the bacteria.
Mozambique is then one of the priority countries devastating floods in the southern African country last month affected about 700,000 people and raised the threat of cholera outbreaks.
The WHO has previously said that there is poverty and conflicts remain a persistent driver of cholera around the world, Climate change has exacerbated a global upswing of the disease that started in 2021 as it contributed to more and wetter storms.
The shortage of vaccines also prompted the WHO to recommend a one-dose vaccination strategy instead of two doses. It said on Wednesday that a one-dose strategy would remain standard, with two-dose campaigns considered on a case-by-case basis.
More than 600,000 cases of cholera and nearly 7,600 deaths were reported to WHO last year, the health agency said.
Global cholera cases had been rising year on year since 2021 before falling in 2025. However, the number of deaths from cholera continued to rise.
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