NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, July 10, 2015

An oral vaccine has reduced cases of severe cholera by nearly 40 percent in a key trial in Bangladeshi slums, suggesting the shot could be used routinely to help endemic countries control the life-threatening disease.

In the first real-life trial of the vaccine, called Shanchol and recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), researchers said it proved safe, easy to administer and relatively inexpensive at $1.85 per dose.

More than one billion people are thought to be at risk of cholera in more than 50 countries where it is endemic. The disease causes acute, watery diarrhea and spreads from person to person through water or food contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacteria.

The infection can kill within hours and people with weaker immune systems – such as children or people with HIV – are at particularly high risk. Cholera kills some 91,000 of the 2.8 million people it affects in endemic regions each year.

Firdausi Qadri of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said the results of this trial, published in The Lancet medical journal, show how a routine oral cholera vaccination program “could substantially reduce the burden of disease and greatly contribute to cholera control efforts”.

Simon Clarke, an expert in cellular microbiology at Britain’s University of Reading who was not involved in the trial, said the result was “significant and exciting”.