Dr. Gabriel Thimoté, Director General of the Ministry of Public Health announced that the pilot phase of the vaccination against cholera will begin this Thursday, April 12, explaining "[...] We expected the firstly the pre-qualification of the World Health Organization (WHO) [...] the vaccine is now pre-qualified, so we can use it. Secondly, we wanted to know the real costs to engage such an operation. Thirdly, we wanted to ensure the availability of doses, now we have 200,000 doses in the country, 100,000 stored in the Artibonite and in West. We also expected the favorable opinion of the National Ethics Committee, finally, we had the authorization of the Committee, will now be able to initiate this pilot project on Thursday [...]"

Dr. Gabriel Thimoté wished to recall once again that this was not an experiment in Haiti "This is not a study, it is not a vaccine trial, it is not an experiment. This vaccine has been administered in many countries, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Senegal... and it has already results. [...] we have selected two areas, one rural and a marginal urban areas [..] 50,000 people in the West and 50,000 in the Artibonite, these are people that we consider to be very healthy and it is exactly this protection that we want to give these people, who have voluntarily chosen to participate [...]" These individuals will each receive two doses of oral vaccine Schanchol, which will ensure a protection to them, up to 80% [following the persons] for 2 to 3 years. Dr. Thimoté recalled that a vaccine provides protection, but will never replace the hygiene measures.

Which raises questions in this phase "said pilot", it is the number of people considered. Indeed, in early February 2012, Dr. Gabriel Thimoté, declared "In the pilot project, we will limit the population to about 200 volunteers [...] to analyze the results and to enable us to extend it to a larger number in the population"... today we speak of a pilot phase involving 100,000 people ?

Mr. Thimothé also said that the situation was worrying in north of the country, adding that in the 19 communes of the department, it is so far identified, 3 deaths and 134 cases of cholera, but, than in the rest of the country, the epidemic was stabilizing. An assertion that wants to be reassuring, but that the WHO tempers estimating that in Haiti, nearly 200,000 people could contract the disease in 2012... It is true that that since the beginning of the epidemic, data from the MSPP have not ceased to be undervalued, as we have denounced it and highlighted many times in many articles on HaitiLibre.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-5279-haiti-cholera-vaccination-campaign-still-waiting.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4885-haiti-health-beginning-of-a-pilot-program-of-vaccination-against-cholera.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4056-haiti-health-a-vaccine-will-be-tested-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4592-haiti-health-pohdh-position-of-the-oral-vaccine-against-cholera.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1986-haiti-epidemic-vaccination-against-cholera-true-or-false-hopes.html

TB/ HL/ HaitiLibre