The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is extremely concerned about a recent announcement that the global cholera vaccine stockpile has been exhausted. As a high number of countries are reporting outbreaks, more manufacturers—existing and new—must urgently help boost the global supply, said MSF.
“The world’s oral cholera vaccine stocks have dried up,” said Dr. Daniela Garone, MSF’s international medical coordinator. “This is a worrisome situation as 16 countries worldwide are reporting cholera outbreaks. This directly affects MSF teams as we are trying to respond to an extraordinary number of cholera outbreaks, including in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.”
There is also very little capacity to manufacture more cholera vaccines, said MSF. It is critical that existing manufacturers scale up vaccine production, and that the efforts of new manufacturers are supported.
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