Aid groups, health ministry plan to administer oral cholera vaccine to 100,000 Haitians

Working in conjunction with the Haitian Ministry of Health and the Haitian aid group GHESKIO, Boston-based Partners In Health (PIH) will begin an immunization campaign in January aimed at providing two doses of the oral cholera vaccine Shanchol "to 100,000 Haitians living in two vulnerable communities: a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, where potable water and latrines are luxuries, and to an isolated rural village in the lower Artibonite Valley region," the Miami Herald reports.

According to the newspaper, "getting the international community to pay for the vaccine, which costs $185 per dose, remains a challenge." In addition, "those opposed to vaccinations are concerned that it will detract from public campaigns for better sanitary measures in Haiti, and from the need to promote potable water and improved sanitary conditions in a country were many people lack both," the newspaper writes, noting the government last year rejected a push for vaccinations over concerns of social unrest because of a limited supply (Charles, 10/19).