Cholera forces nations to purchase vaccines to slow its spread. The country is no stranger to the world situation and in January 2023 it received 85,000 doses donated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance applied 7.1% of the doses until March 2023, which is equivalent to 6,093 inoculated people. Of them, 3,482 people are between 15 and 49 years old.
According to the data, 14.9% were doses applied to 912 adults over 50 years of age, while 14.1% were allocated to young people from nine to 14 years of age, with 864. Meanwhile, 695 children between the ages of five and eight were vaccinated against this disease.
Cholera vaccines require two doses 7 to 14 days apart depending on the brand being used. Despite the fact that in the Dominican Republic there were outbreaks in previous periods, the vaccine began to be applied on January 25 of this year.
However, due to the incidence in the world and the shortage of oral vaccine, the International Coordination Group (ICG) recommends administering a dose to maintain health control. The trade names of the vaccines are Dukoral, Shanchol, and Euvichol-Plus.
Disease
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacillus vibrio cholerae. This disease has an incubation period that fluctuates between 12 hours and five days, but between 80% and 90% of people present mild symptoms that are difficult to distinguish clinically from other pathologies.
The Dominican Republic confirmed the first case of cholera on November 15, 2010, in a resident of Higüey, who was returning from Haiti. During 2010 and 2012, the epidemic affected 28,000 people and caused 400 deaths. At that time it was classified as low intensity, since it only affected 0.2% of the population.
10 years later, on December 22, 2022, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance confirmed eight cases of cholera, two were imported from Haiti and six located in Santo Domingo.
By January 2023, it amounted to 10 cases of residents of the La Zurza sector, Santo Domingo, while on February 6 it stood at 47 cases; February 17, 71 cases; and on March 3, it reported 88 confirmed cases. However, in Haiti the confirmed cases amounted to 2,439; followed by the 33,614 suspected cases; 29,782, hospitalized cases and 594 deaths.
“It is key to mitigate cholera epidemic outbreaks, control the disease when it becomes endemic, and reduce mortality through inoculation,” establishes PAHO.
prevalence
Between 2013-2015, the Dominican State executed the action plan for the elimination of cholera on the island of Hispaniola, with an investment of RD$1,347 million. Of this amount, RD$64.3 million were allocated to attend to the cases that were presented in the national network of health services.
The World Health Organization (WHO) put a global strategy for cholera control in 2017 called “End cholera: global roadmap for 2030”, which aims to reduce deaths from the disease by 90%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates between 1.3 million and 1.4 million cases of cholera worldwide and between 21,000 and 143,000 deaths from this cause.
The number of cholera cases reported to the WHO has remained high in recent years. In 2020, 323,369 cases were reported in 24 countries, of which 857 were fatal.
