Cholera vaccine supply set to double

The global supply of oral cholera vaccines is set to double after World Health Organisation (WHO) approved a third producer, helping to address global shortages and expand access in more countries.

Globally, OCV production is low, with demands currently exceeding supply. Sudan and Haiti last year made requests to WHO for supplies of vaccines to conduct pre-emptive vaccination campaigns that could not be filled because of the global shortage.

The vaccine producer, a South Korean company, is the latest oral cholera vaccine (OCV) manufacturer to be approved under the WHO's pre-qualification programme, which ensures that drugs and vaccines bought by countries and international procurement agencies such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) meet acceptable standards of quality, safety and efficacy.

The addition of an additional pre-qualified vaccine producer is expected to double global supply to 6 million doses for 2016, with the potential for further increased production in the future. This additional capacity will contribute to reversing a vicious cycle of low demand, low production, high price and inequitable distribution, to a virtuous cycle of increased demand, increased production, reduced price and greater equity of access.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated. There are between 1.4 million and 4.3 million cases a year, and as many as 1,42,000 deaths. Cholera is endemic in more than 50 countries. Climate change and El Niño may also be contributing to more frequent cholera outbreaks.

In 2013 the WHO created the world's first OCV stockpile, undertaking to buy and use 2 million doses a year in order to stabilise and create demand for the vaccines.