Question

Oral vaccine such as Dukoral® and Shanchol™ is used for prevention of:

• A. $ \text{Pneumonia} $
• B. $ \text{Ebola virus} $
• C. $ \text{Cholera} $
• D. $ \text{Polio} $

Hint:

Remember that Dukoral® and Shanchol™ are the primary oral vaccines against cholera, critical for public health in endemic regions.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Dukoral and Shanchol are named as oral vaccines in the question. To identify what they protect against, it helps to know how these two vaccines are built.

Both vaccines contain killed, whole cells of Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera. Dukoral additionally carries a harmless piece of the cholera toxin, called the B subunit, while Shanchol is a simpler bivalent whole cell formulation without any toxin component. Because they are swallowed rather than injected, they trigger antibody production directly in the gut lining, at the same surface where Vibrio cholerae attaches and releases its toxin. This local gut immunity is what blocks the bacterium from causing disease.

1. Pneumonia: caused by organisms such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and prevented with injectable conjugate or polysaccharide vaccines, not an oral cholera type vaccine.
2. Ebola virus: prevented with an injectable viral vector vaccine, with no oral formulation resembling Dukoral or Shanchol.
3. Polio: has its own dedicated oral vaccine made from poliovirus strains, separate in composition and purpose from Dukoral and Shanchol.

Since the composition and mechanism of both vaccines point specifically to protection in the gut against Vibrio cholerae, the disease being prevented is Cholera.