# Assessing measures to eliminate transmission of cholera in Haiti

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $1,072,308

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 In 2010, cholera was introduced in Haiti, resulting in over 800,000 cases of cholera and over 10,000
deaths. While the cholera epidemic in Haiti is the largest in over 25 years, it is far from an isolated event, and
other large outbreaks have occurred in South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Iraq, Nigeria and most recently in Yemen where over 860,000 cases of cholera have occurred 2017. In
addition to these epidemics, cholera is currently endemic in 47 countries where it often disproportionately
occurs in young children.
 When cholera was introduced in Haiti, vaccination was not considered part of the standard public health
response to cholera epidemics. During the first funding period of this project we showed that a new, lower-cost
oral cholera vaccination was highly immunogenic in children and adults in Haiti, and that vaccination was
feasible and effective in preventing cholera in Haiti. These studies have contributed to an improved
understanding of cholera vaccines, which are now being deployed globally to more effectively prevent large
cholera epidemics.
 Despite this progress in understanding cholera vaccines, there remains an urgent need to learn more
about how to eliminate cholera in areas once it is already established in the environment. In this proposal, we
address questions that will improve upon current programs to eliminate human cholera transmission in such
endemic areas. Our aims will leverage public health activities undertaken by our team and partners, including
an innovative cholera elimination program in Haiti which will include vaccination with household water
treatment and safe storage interventions. In this study, we will use novel methods to understand how both
symptomatic and asymptomatic breakthrough cholera infections occur even after an intervention to eliminate
cholera. We will also determine whether such integrated vaccination and water related interventions impact
more broadly on the health of young children in the community. We will do this by looking at their nutritional
health, intestinal health, and infection with specific intestinal bacteria, and seeing how these relate to
vaccination and improvements in water quality at the household level. Given our team’s experience in Haiti, our
involvement in providing cholera treatment and prevention services, our multidisciplinary scientific approach,
and our contribution to global cholera policy, we are well poised to address these critical questions, which are
urgently needed to inform the most effective approach toward achieving the World Health Organization’s goal
of the elimination of cholera transmission as a global threat by 2030.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9963085
- **Project number:** 5R01AI099243-08
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** JASON B HARRIS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,072,308
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-27 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9963085

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9963085, Assessing measures to eliminate transmission of cholera in Haiti (5R01AI099243-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9963085. Licensed CC0.

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