We’ve run out of cholera vaccines, WHO official says as disease surges
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The global stockpile of cholera vaccines the World Health Organization helps manage is “currently empty or extremely low”, a WHO official said on Friday amid a resurgence of the disease around the world.
The U.N. health agency says global fatality rates are rising and there are around 30 countries around the world that have reported cholera outbreaks this year, about a third higher than in a typical year.
“We have no more vaccines. More countries are continuing to request (them) and it’s extremely challenging,” said Dr Philippe Barboza, WHO Team Lead for Cholera and Epidemic Diarrhoeal Diseases.
Barboza said part of the crunch was due to the decision by an Indian manufacturer to halt exports, without giving details. He said a South African manufacturer was planning to start production but it would take “a few years”.
“It’s probably far less attractive to develop a vaccine for cholera, so basically a vaccine for poor countries, than to develop COVID vaccines where the income made for the vaccine is much higher,” he said. A batch of more than 1 million doses arrived in Haiti this week.
By Emma Farge
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/global-stockpile-cholera-vaccines-empty-or-extremely-low-who-2022-12-16/
