Summary

No study of long-term protection following killed oral cholera vaccination has been done outside of the historically cholera-endemic areas of south Asia, or has examined protection after a single-dose vaccination regimen. To address this, we examined the duration of protection of the standard two-dose regimen and an incomplete regimen of one dose up to 4 years after vaccination in Haiti.

In the setting of two-dose vaccination campaigns with a killed, bivalent, whole-cell oral cholera vaccination, we did a case-control study from October, 2012 through November, 2016. Eligible participants were required to be resident in the vaccine catchment area (Artibonite Department or Central Department) where they were recruited at the start of the study; and be eligible for the vaccination campaign (ie, aged ≥12 months, not pregnant, and living in the region at the time of the vaccine campaign). Patients with cholera had a positive stool culture and were recruited from cholera treatment centres. Community controls were matched to people with cholera by age group, time, and neighbourhood. We did adjusted matched regression analyses to calculate vaccine effectiveness and examine heterogeneity in effectiveness over time. The primary outcome was the effectiveness of one and two oral cholera doses as compared with zero doses from 2 months to 48 months after vaccination, measured by self reporting.

Among 178 people assigned to the case group and 706 people assigned to the control group, we found no evidence that two-dose effectiveness decreased during follow-up. In adjusted analyses, the average cumulative 4 year effectiveness for two doses was 76% (95% CI 59–86). In contrast, single-dose effectiveness decreased over time in a log-linear fashion, with a predicted vaccine effectiveness of 79% at the end of 12 months (95% CI 43–93), which declined to zero before the end of the second year.

In a setting of epidemic and newly endemic cholera in Haiti, single-dose vaccination with killed, bivalent, whole-cell oral cholera vaccination provided short-term protection; however, vaccination with two doses was required for long-term protection, which lasted up to 4 years after vaccination. These results add to the evidence in support of the use of killed, bivalent, whole-cell oral cholera vaccination as part of comprehensive cholera control plans.

US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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