The global stockpile of cholera vaccines that the World Health Organization helps manage is “currently empty or extremely low”, a WHO official said on Friday amid a worldwide resurgence of the disease .
The United Nations health agency says global death rates are rising and around 30 countries around the world have reported cholera outbreaks this year, about a third more than in a normal year.
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“We don’t have more vaccines. More countries keep asking for (them) and it’s extremely difficult,” said Dr. Philippe Barboza, WHO team leader for cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases.
It referred to an emergency reserve of the International Coordination Group on the supply of vaccines managed by the WHO and other partners. Typically, it has about 36 million doses available per year. The vaccine shortage has already prompted the WHO to temporarily suspend the standard two-dose vaccination strategy in October.
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Barboza said part of the crisis was due to an Indian manufacturer’s decision to stop exports, without elaborating. He said a South African manufacturer planned to start production, but that it would take “a number of years”.
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“It’s probably much less attractive to develop a cholera vaccine, basically a vaccine for poor countries, than to develop COVID vaccines where the revenue from the vaccine is much higher,” he said. A batch of more than 1 million doses arrived in Haiti this week.
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Cholera is spread through contaminated food or water and can cause acute diarrhea. Many people have mild symptoms, but it can kill within hours if left untreated.
“In the 21st century it is not acceptable that people are dying of a disease that is very well known and very easy to treat,” added Barboza.
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Among the countries with outbreaks are those affected by poverty and conflict such as Haiti and Yemen, but the disease has also been reported in countries such as Lebanon, which until recently was a middle-income country, saying that this it should be a wake-up call for other countries.
— Reporting by Emma Farge, editing by Nick Macfie
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