Via ReliefWeb, a report from MSF: MSF vaccinates 117,000 people against cholera in Guinea: a promising approach to outbreak response. Excerpt:
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has vaccinated 117,000 people against cholera in the region of Boffa, 150 km north of Conakry, the Guinean capital. This is the first time that people in Africa have been protected during a cholera outbreak by a two-dose oral vaccine. This initiative could spur an improved response to cholera epidemics worldwide.
In collaboration with the Guinean Ministry of Health, MSF focused its response on a coastal region near Conakry, which was considered a hotspot of the epidemic.
"We were faced with an outbreak and we wanted first to protect people by vaccinating them, and to limit the spread of cholera," said Dr Dominique Legros, MSF’s innovation initiative manager in Geneva.
"MSF is regularly involved in responding to cholera outbreaks and it is always difficult to control the disease," said Dr Legros. "Because cholera evolves quickly, oral vaccination provides us with a new tool to try to contain the disease. If we can control the most active spots, we can reduce the spread of cholera."
Since the vaccination campaign, MSF and its partner Épicentre have strengthened epidemiological surveillance in the region in order to monitor the evolution of the epidemic and the efficacy of the vaccine over the next six months.
