mass vaccination

Resource October 17, 2013

First outbreak response using an oral cholera vaccine in Africa: vaccine coverage, acceptability and surveillance of adverse events, Guinea, 2012

Article published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on 17-Oct-2013 by Luquero, F. J. et al.

Map of Guinea for campaign article PLOS NTDs

BACKGROUND: Despite World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification of two safe and effective oral cholera vaccines (OCV), concerns about the acceptability, potential diversion of resources, cost and feasibility of implementing timely campaigns has discouraged their use. In 2012, the Ministry of Health of Guinea, with the support of Medecins Sans Frontieres organized the first mass vaccination campaign using a two-dose OCV (Shanchol) as an additional control measure to respond to the on-going nationwide epidemic. Overall, 316,250 vaccines were delivered. Here, we present the results of vaccination coverage, acceptability and surveillance of adverse events.

Resource October 1, 2013

WHO Oral Cholera Vaccine Stockpile

The WHO has recently made available a stockpile of 2 million doses of OCV to be accessed by requesting country programs.

Resource September 10, 2013

Feasibility of mass vaccination campaign with oral cholera vaccines in response to an outbreak in Guinea

Article published in PLoS Medicine on 10-Sep-2013 by Ciglenecki, I. et al.

Iza Ciglenecki and colleagues from Medecins sans Frontieres report their experience of undertaking a mass vaccination campaign with oral cholera vaccines in response to an outbreak in Guinea. The authors provide the following summary points:

Resource September 4, 2012

Effectiveness of an oral cholera vaccine in Zanzibar: Findings from a mass vaccination campaign and observational cohort study

Article published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on 4-Sep-2012 by Khatib, A. M. et al.

BACKGROUND: Zanzibar, in east Africa, has been severely and repeatedly affected by cholera since 1978. We assessed the effectiveness of oral cholera vaccination in high-risk populations in the archipelago to estimate the indirect (herd) protection conferred by the vaccine and direct vaccine effectiveness.