2024-03-23 03:55:24
Global supplies of cholera vaccines are exhausted, and any outbreak of the disease will place additional strain on the fragile vaccine production system. This is stated in a joint article by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema, the text of the article is available to TASS, Day.Az reports.
“By January of this year, global vaccine reserves had run out. Any new cholera outbreak would place additional stress on the current fragile vaccine production ecosystem,” the article says. The authors note that, amid a shortage of drug supplies, active cholera outbreaks continue in 23 countries.
“Cholera threatens the lives of more than 1 billion people, but pharmaceutical companies are not producing cholera vaccines because they are cost-effective because the disease affects the poorest people,” the story explains. “Lack of cholera vaccine production capacity limits our ability to respond to outbreaks and prevention campaigns. Increasing global production of cholera vaccines remains an important challenge in the medium to long term. Zambia currently expects to produce enough vaccines to protect at least 2.4 million people at risk of cholera in the country “.
The article notes that such extreme measures as suspending the standard two-dose vaccination regimen and switching to a single-dose regimen in order to make the most of the remaining vaccine supplies did not help overcome the critical situation. The authors conclude that as the number of outbreaks continues to increase, investment in local cholera vaccine production capacity is becoming “a critical element in the fight against the disease.”
“The global community must provide the necessary support by investing in the creation of production capacity and guaranteeing orders for the supply of vaccines,” experts emphasize.