Haiti - Cholera : Vaccination campaign, still waiting...
Dr. Gabriel Thimoté, Director General of the Ministry of Health had declared early February at the announcement of a pilot vaccination "...at the beginning the Ministry had reticence about the vaccination against cholera due to lack of vaccine availability and also because of the fact that the vaccine that had been chosen, [the Shanchol], had not yet pre-qualification of the World Health Organization (WHO). But after contacts, meetings with experts, both Haitian and foreign, and especially, after approval by the WHOof vaccine Shanchol, which is an oral vaccine that does not require major conservation measures, the Ministry opted for vaccination against cholera in Haiti."
For over one year, Gheskio, a group of medical specialists recognized both nationally, and internationally is working to the establishment of a project of vaccination against cholera to Port-au-Prince while its rural plan is supported by Partners in Health. The vaccination campaign is initially targeting two areas: a slum in Port-au-Prince, Cité de Dieu, and a rural area around the Artibonite River.
Vaccines are ready, teams are formed... The President Michel Martelly gave its agreement, but the project still awaits the approval of a national ethics committee, which wants to ensure that the vaccine is no longer experimental, while the vaccine Shanchol is already used in a number of other countries in the world and that its efficiency can reach over 80%...
Meanwhile, people hope that the slowness of this ethics committee eventually bring them one day... a beginning of solution to the disease that affected more than 550,000 Haitians and left more than 7,000 victims...
