A vaccine against cholera cheap performed well in a pilot in Vietnam. The discovery, published in the tomorrow The Lancet , is a breakthrough in the search long and frustrating in developing countries an effective vaccine against cholera, a potentially fatal disease spread by contaminated drinking water.
at the end of 1992, a team led by researchers at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development United States has given the oral vaccine - which is to kill all Vibrio cholerae , the cholera bacteria - to more than 67,000 residents of Hue, Vietnam. A number approximately equal did not receive the vaccine. In 1993, 37 people were vaccinated admitted to a hospital with cholera, against 92 cases in the control group. Thus, the vaccine decreased hospital admissions for cholera by 60%.
Developed and produced at the institute in Hanoi, the vaccine is relatively cheap to produce and easy to distribute as it remains active without refrigeration. He also seems to be equally effective in children and adults. What surprised the researchers, because a similar set, tested vaccine killed in Bangladesh in the 1980s seems to be less strong in children.
"This study is important," said Myron M. Levine, director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, "because it demonstrates that a developing country can design, produce and evaluate a moderately effective vaccine in a large field trial with little outside help. "
researchers plan to launch a larger trial in Vietnam later this year between the vaccine against placebo. If proven effective, the vaccine could be pressed into service quickly in Vietnam, where more than 3,000 people receive cholera every year. Levine adds that a similar vaccine against other strains of cholera could be produced in developing countries such as Zaire, where an outbreak has killed 12,000 people in the Rwandan refugee camps in July 1994.
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