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Eugene Lam1 , Wasan Al-Tamimi, Steven Paul Russell, Muhammad Obaid-ul Islam Butt, Curtis Blanton, Altaf Sadrudin Musani, and Kashmira Date
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (E. Lam, S.P. Russell, C. Blanton, K. Date); World Health Organization, Baghdad, Iraq (W. Al-Tamimi, M.O.I. Butt, A.S. Musani)
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Abstract below; full text is at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/1/16-0881_article
During November–December 2015, as part of the 2015 cholera outbreak response in Iraq, the Iraqi Ministry of Health targeted ≈255,000 displaced persons >1 year of age with 2 doses of oral cholera vaccine (OCV). All persons who received vaccines were living in selected refugee camps, internally displaced persons camps, and collective centers. We conducted a multistage cluster survey to obtain OCV coverage estimates in 10 governorates that were targeted during the campaign. In total, 1,226 household and 5,007 individual interviews were conducted. Overall, 2-dose OCV coverage in the targeted camps was 87% (95% CI 85%–89%). Two-dose OCV coverage in the 3 northern governorates (91%; 95% CI 87%–94%) was higher than that in the 7 southern and central governorates (80%; 95% CI 77%–82%). The experience in Iraq demonstrates that OCV campaigns can be successfully implemented as part of a comprehensive response to cholera outbreaks among high-risk populations in conflict settings.