N Engl J Med 2018; 378:577-579; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1711583 A dose of oral vaccine provides effective short-term protection against cholera during an outbreak, a study in Zambia shows. According to researchers, a shortage in the global stockpile of cholera vaccines meant that single-dose oral vaccination was necessary to tackle an outbreak in Lusaka, Zambia, in February 2016. The emergency vaccination campaign was implemented in April 2016, targeting more than 500,000 people in Lusaka’s overcrowded township areas. The 2016 outbreak happened when Zambia had not reported a case of cholera in four years. To determine the effectiveness of the single-dose cholera vaccine, the researchers enrolled 66 patients with confirmed cholera and 330 people without the disease who were neighbours of the patients. According to the study the effectiveness of the single dose vaccination was about 90 per cent.