Low-Cost Oral Vaccine Efficacious in a Cholera-Endemic Area

Two doses of oral vaccine compliant with WHO standards had a protective efficacy of 67% against clinically significant cholera.

Cholera claims an estimated 120,000 lives annually. In 2001, the WHO recommended use of the only internationally licensed cholera vaccine, but the expense of this preparation (in Bangladesh, about US$20 per dose) precludes widespread administration in most cholera-endemic countries. Recently, an existing inexpensive, locally produced vaccine was modified, and its manufacturing process improved, to comply with WHO standards. The redesigned vaccine contains lipopolysaccharide of five strains of heat- or formalin-killed Vibrio cholerae but no detectable cholera toxin.

Now, researchers (2 of them employed by the vaccine makers) have assessed the efficacy and safety of this redesigned vaccine in a cluster-randomized, double-blind trial in a chole…

Reviewing Author

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine