COIOS
Healthcare today Item new preprint

Uvira's 2020 cholera vaccination campaign averted an estimated 56% of infections

A Bayesian model fitted to seven years of enhanced cholera surveillance in Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo, estimates that a 2020 oral vaccination campaign reaching 66% coverage averted 56% (95% CrI 34-81) of infections and deaths over the following three years.

The authors combined rapid-test-confirmed surveillance at Uvira's two cholera treatment facilities with repeated population surveys of care-seeking, vaccination, mobility and antibodies, and fitted an ensemble of transmission models to estimate what would have happened without the 2020 campaign. The campaign, reaching 66% of the population with at least one dose, was estimated to have averted 56% (95% CrI 34-81) of infections and deaths over three years, about 2,350 facility-attended cases and 44 deaths. Full coverage of the eligible population would have averted 64% (43-87), in a preprint.

Why it is interesting: One of few population-level estimates of oral cholera vaccine impact in an endemic African city, and it bounds what vaccination alone achieves where transmission is intense.

Source
medRxiv, 20 September 2026
DOI
10.64898/2026.09.17.26363298
Type
Preprint
Design
Surveillance-based Bayesian counterfactual transmission modelling, Uvira, DRC, Jan 2017–Dec 2023, around a 2020 campaign reaching 66% single-dose coverage
Verdict
New finding
Driver
Infectious disease and pandemics