Abstract
Andrew Azman and colleagues describe their experience of deploying >250,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine in South Sudan in 2014
Highlights
In December 2013, violence erupted in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, and quickly spread throughout the country
Continued fighting and the threat of escalating violence resulted in displacement of more than one in five people throughout the country, many of them residing in Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites inside United Nations Mission bases and spontaneous settlements of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
The appalling conditions of the PoC and IDP camps throughout the country led to early discussions between the South Sudan Ministry of Health (MoH), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners about the possibility of a cholera outbreak exploding within the camps
Summary
A global oral cholera vaccine (OCV) stockpile was established in 2013 to improve rapid access to the vaccine in outbreaks and emergencies in which cholera risk is high. The first deployment from the global OCV stockpile was to South Sudan in 2014 because of high cholera risk from massive population displacements within the civil war. 256,700 doses of OCV were delivered, with high coverage, throughout the country as part of a comprehensive cholera prevention strategy by multiple agencies, some of which had little to no previous experience with this vaccine. This deployment highlights the feasibility of effective deployments from the OCV stockpile and the importance of strong coordination between governmental and nongovernmental agencies in cholera prevention and control planning from the assessment of cholera risk to the deployment of the vaccines.
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