WHO approves new oral simplified cholera vaccine

World Health Organization’s has approved a new oral vaccine for cholera. The oral vaccine for cholera received prequalification by the WHO on 12 April 2024. The inactivated oral vaccine Euvichol-S has a similar efficacy to existing vaccines but a simplified formulation, allowing opportunities to rapidly increase production capacity.

There were 473 000 cholera cases reported to WHO in 2022 — double the number from 2021. Further increase of cases by 700 000 was estimated for 2023. Currently, 23 countries are reporting cholera outbreaks with most severe impacts seen in the Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.