KILLER DISEASES | CHOLERA IN THE FUTURE

Cholera is a very old disease, like the plague. They are what we refer to as the great scourges of humanity. Everyone knows cholera. Across the world, cholera is still a common disease. There are still a fairly significant number of deaths from cholera. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 4 to 5 million cases of cholera, and between 120,000 and 140,000 deaths per year. The disease is caused by a pathogen that we know, but which we have to monitor, as it's a pathogen that has a significant capacity to evolve. More specifically, it can become more virulent. It can also develop antibiotic resistance, increasingly so, in fact, over the past few years. Treatment is through rehydration, either orally or with an infusion. In fact, it's essentially a logistics challenge, because to provide effective treatment, you need to be present, which requires significant logistics, which are often lacking in countries that experience cholera epidemics, making it more difficult. One of the projects for the future is to improve the vaccine. We need to develop a vaccine that protects for a longer period of time, and that can be delivered in one dose. It would improve protection for populations, and would reduce the logistics necessary to deliver the vaccine. It would also reduce the cost of vaccination. One of the other topics to explore, or areas to develop in the field of cholera control, is to improve diagnosis. Currently, in addition to laboratory diagnosis, there are rapid diagnostic tests. A number of them are already on the market, are commercially available, and are used in the field. But for now, the results are mixed. Let's say these diagnostic tests aren't sufficiently reliable. So another thing to develop in the next few years, as quickly as possible, are new rapid diagnostic tests that can be used by untrained staff, and that would improve the prevention and the control of epidemics.