Govt. to procure over 200 thousand doses of Oral Cholera Vaccine

Kathmandu / Nov. 8: The government has taken initiative to get a supply of over 2.5 lakh doses of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV) following the surge of cholera cases in wards 7, 8, and 9 of Krishnanagar Municipality in Kapilvastu district.

According to Krishna Prasad Poudel, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), the World Health Organisation’s International Coordinating Group (ICG) Cholera Secretariat, which is devoted to the control of cholera disease, has committed to supplying 252,363 doses of OCVs to Nepal.

He said that OCV vaccines are kept on the global stockpile and are immediately supplied to places of a cholera outbreak, from which Nepal is to receive OCVs by the end of November to contain Vibrio Cholerae O1 Ogawa serotype, detected in the stools of the infected people of Krishnagar.

“OCVs will be administered by identifying high-risk areas as well as where water and sanitation are in a poor condition. The vaccine will keep people safe from cholera for five years after its administration,” spokesperson Poudel added.

A total of six people have lost their lives to cholera so far after its outbreak on October 4 in Krishnanagar.