The second phase of an oral vaccination campaign to protect more than 835 000 people from cholera in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) started last October 2019. While North Kivu has been struggling with an outbreak of Ebola virus disease for more than a year, this northeastern province is also endemic for cholera.
The Ministry of Health is launching this major campaign, which is fully funded, including operational costs, by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and is being implemented with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners in the Global Task Force on Cholera.
The campaign aims to reduce the still-high risk and persistence of the cholera outbreak in seven North Kivu health zones (Binza, Goma, Karisimbi, Kayna, Kibirizi, Kirotshe and Rutshuru) by targeting everyone older than 12 months with the oral vaccine.
This five-day campaign (from 30 October to 3 November) follows the first-dose distribution of the cholera vaccine in June 2019, which was also fully funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, with the extensive technical and logistical support of WHO and partners. The previous effort reached at-risk populations in the same seven health zones targeted in this second campaign.
