The vaccine is the only one approved in the U.S. for protection against cholera.
A cholera vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) has been recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for use as a protection for U.S. adults traveling to areas with cholera. The CDC’s latest recommendation was published on May 11, in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The CDC’s published recommendation comes less than a year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016 approved the vaccine. It was invented in the 1980s by Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH, the Simon and Bessie Grollman Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Global Health, Vaccinology, and Infectious Diseases at UM SOM along with James B. Kaper, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

The vaccine, named Vaxchora, is a single–dose, live–attenuated oral vaccine. It was approved by the FDA for use in adults 18 to 64 years old traveling to regions where cholera is common. PaxVax, a global biotechnology company based in California, received marketing approval from the FDA for the vaccine, and CVD scientists have been working closely with PaxVax since 2009 to develop the vaccine and secure FDA licensure approval.

“The CDC’s recommendation further demonstrates that the work by our scientists here at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has had an impact not only nationally, but globally,” said UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the vice president for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.