About the DOVE Project

STOP Cholera: Work Together. Stop Transmission. End Deaths.

Our Mission

The goal of the Delivering Oral Vaccine Effectively (DOVE) Project is to ensure that populations at risk of cholera will benefit from receiving oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in an appropriate and effective manner.

DOVE works to prevent, treat, and control cholera. We provide tools and resources to countries and agencies who are dealing with the threat of cholera in order to assist them in making evidence-based decisions regarding when and how to use OCV.

What We Do

The DOVE Project is based at Johns Hopkins University but works in close collaboration with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and other partners with support from The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. Our work focuses on:

  • Safe and effective oral cholera vaccine delivery
  • Assisting countries to develop and review their National Cholera Control Plans
  • Assisting countries evaluate their cholera burden so they can make decisions about use and targeting of OCV
  • Operations research and analysis to maximize the impact of OCV
  • Monitoring & evaluation of OCV campaigns
  • Documenting lessons learned from OCV campaigns; thus, continually improving OCV’s effectiveness

This website and the links to other resources feature evidence from recent experiences with OCV. We also provide tools and resources to help ministries and agencies make decisions on when, where, and how to use OCV. By collecting OCV experiences and sharing this information, the DOVE Project hopes this collective knowledge and wisdom about cholera control will eventually stop cholera from being a major public health problem. STOP Cholera: Work Together. Stop Transmission. End Deaths.

Where We Work

DOVE collaborates with local organizations and governments in regions where cholera is a major threat. Some of our activities in these regions include:

Bangladesh: Investigators from DOVE are collaborating with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of OCV in controlled clinical trials in Bangladesh.

Cameroon: DOVE is collaborating with M.A. Sante and the Ministry of Health to assess the cholera and non-cholera diarrhea burden in the Far North and Littoral Regions of the country. DOVE also assisted with the monitoring and evaluation of the OCV campaign carried out in Mogode in 2017. A dose-interval study will be conducted to assess the immune response following two doses of OCV, but using different dose intervals.

Malawi: DOVE investigators are supporting the development of national cholera control strategies, including monitoring and evaluation of the 2017 OCV campaign in southern Malawi, and the area around Lake Chilwa, both of which have been cholera hotspots.

Nepal: DOVE is working through an NGO, Group for Technical Assistance, to aid the Ministry of Health with evaluating the cholera burden in Nepal and has assisted with the development of a national cholera control plan, as well as an OCV campaign.

Nigeria: An investigator from DOVE has been assisting the World Health Organization to monitor and evaluate the 2017-2018 OCV campaigns in Borno State Nigeria.

South Sudan: While working with the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, MSF, and various NGOs, DOVE investigators supported the development of strategies for OCV campaigns, and operations research, which has resulted in several important publications documenting OCV effectiveness.

Uganda: Since 2015, DOVE has been working with the Ministry of Health and Makerere University to facilitate the understanding of cholera transmission in Uganda. This improved understanding has now led to several scientific publications, but even more importantly, these activities have led to an application for OCV to be targeted to the identified hotspot areas. Following the vaccinations campaigns, DOVE plans to continue to assist the Ministry’s cholera control program by facilitating an evaluation of the impact of this integrated cholera control program.

Zambia: Since 2017, DOVE has been working with scientists at the Center for Infectious Disease Research Zambia (CIDRZ) to conduct operations research and epidemiological studies. One study, being conducted in the Mukanga Swamps, is evaluating the immune response to OCV in subjects who receive two doses of the vaccine using different dose intervals. One group will receive two doses with the standard two week interval between doses while the other group will receive the second dose after 6 months. This delayed second dose has been used frequently during outbreaks, but the immune response to this strategy has not previously be assessed. Other studies in Zambia will map the recent cholera outbreaks in Zambia to better identify the hotspots and likely routes of transmission. A third study will document the molecular characteristics of the cholera strains which have caused outbreaks in recent years to better understand transmission patterns. 

Funding

DOVE is supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1053556) and is administered through the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.