Irish Examiner View: Rationing of cholera vaccines should provoke worldwide reaction

The WHO has been forced to halve the number of cholera vaccine doses given to people in global hotspots.

A young girl stands against the wall in Beira, Mozambique, in 2019, as the country faced a  "second disaster" from cholera and other diseases, the World Health Organization warned. Picture: Themba Hadebe/AP

The fact the World Health Organization (WHO) has begun rationing cholera vaccines worldwide seems unthinkable in this day and age.

A “dire shortage” of cholera vaccines and an unprecedented rise in cases globally has forced the WHO to halve the number of doses given to people in global hotspots.

Irishman Mike Ryan, the executive director for WHO’s health emergencies programme, admitted the decisions the organisation has had to make, mark a “very sad day”.

Some 29 countries have already reported cholera cases this year — including Haiti, Somalia, Syria, and Malawi — many of these are large-scale outbreaks of the so-called ‘disease of the poor,’ a term which is leading many countries to disassociate themselves from the stigma of this disease and not allow a clear picture of their cholera problems.

Cholera is a water-born disease and easily treatable if responded to in a judicious fashion, but with 24m of the 36m vaccine doses being produced this year having already been shipped, with 8m more earmarked for emergencies, and only 4m left in the global stockpile, this is a worsening crisis and the world needs to react.