A new simplified oral vaccine for cholera has received prequalification by the World Health Organization.
The WHO said that the inactivated oral vaccine Euvichol-S has a similar efficacy to existing vaccines but a simplified formulation, allowing opportunities to rapidly increase production capacity.
“The new vaccine is the third product of the same family of vaccines we have for cholera in our WHO prequalification list,” said Dr Rogerio Gaspar, Director of the WHO Department for Regulation and Prequalification. “The new prequalification is hoped to enable a rapid increase in production and supply which many communities battling with cholera outbreaks urgently need.”
The WHO prequalification list already includes Euvichol and Euvichol-Plus inactivated oral cholera vaccines produced by EuBiologicals Co., Ltd. The South Korean company also produces the new vaccine Euvichol-S.
A total of 473 000 cholera cases were reported to WHO in 2022, which is double the number from 2021. A further increase of cases by 700,000 was estimated for 2023.
Currently, 23 countries are reporting cholera outbreaks, with the most severe impacts seen in the Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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