Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) stated today it has prequalified Euvichol-S, a new oral simplified vaccine for cholera. The new oral vaccine for cholera received prequalification by WHO on April 12, 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, WHO stated.
“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,” Gaspar added.
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The World Health Organization prequalification list already includes Euvichol and Euvichol-Plus inactivated oral cholera vaccines produced by EuBiologicals Company Limited, South Korea, which also produces the new vaccine Euvichol-S.
It may be mentioned that while vaccines provide the fastest intervention to prevent, limit and control cholera outbreaks, their supplies have been at the lowest point amidst countries facing dire shortcomings in other areas of cholera prevention and management such as safe water, hygiene and sanitation.
There were 473,000 cholera cases reported to the World Health Organization in 2022 — 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, WHO stated.
– global bihari bureau
