Study: Traveler's Diarrhea Vaccine Doable

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=1415075

Study Suggests Vaccine to Protect Against Traveler's Diarrhea Is Possible

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - An experimental vaccine provided some protection against that

scourge of tourism, traveler's diarrhea, when put to a rigorous test among

U.S. students in Mexico and Guatemala, scientists reported Friday.

The research provides important evidence that a vaccine is possible against

the hard-to-avoid germs, instead of merely urging travelers to guard

against risky food and water. Now the challenge is to strengthen that

protection.

" This is a very encouraging first step, " said microbiologist A. Louis

Bourgeois of s Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health,

who led the study of the Swedish-developed vaccine.

Traveler's diarrhea is the leading cause of illness among visitors to

developing countries, striking an estimated 20 million international

travelers a year. While there are numerous causes, the chief culprit is

bacteria called enterotoxigenic E. coli, or ETEC. It is spread through

contaminated food and water, and while rarely life threatening to the

otherwise healthy traveler, it can cause up to a week of misery.

ETEC is becoming more resistant to antibiotics, making it harder to treat

the seriously ill and increasing the need for a vaccine, said Dr.

Hooper of Massachusetts General Hospital, who helped organize the American

Society for Microbiology meeting where the data was unveiled.

Scientists are hunting a variety of ways to make an anti-ETEC vaccine. This

one came about almost accidentally: During tests of a cholera vaccine in

Bangladesh, some recipients also seemed temporarily protected from

ETEC-caused diarrhea. So researchers at the University of Goteborg in

Sweden and that country's SBL Vaccines created a vaccine especially for

traveler's diarrhea.

They used part of that cholera vaccine, because a toxin produced by cholera

is very similar to an ETEC-produced toxin. The new vaccine also contains

killed E. coli cells designed to stimulate the immune system to attack the

germs before they dock in the intestine and start making toxin.

Some 1,406 U.S. students swallowed the vaccine or a placebo before spending

up to a month studying Spanish in Guatemala or Mexico. (The vaccine is

considered so safe that students received it by mail, swallowing it at home

as researchers supervised by telephone. )

At first, the vaccine appeared only to lessen disease severity, Bourgeois

said.

Then researchers used blood tests to determine if the vaccine in fact

stimulated an immune response. It didn't " take " in everybody.

But among responders, it was 84 percent effective at blocking severe

diarrhea, and 63 percent effective at blocking even mild cases, too.

Vaccine responders who did get sick had half as many days of illness as

placebo recipients.

The big question is why only about half of recipients have a strong immune

response. Bourgeois said the vaccine's developers are working to improve that.

" Obviously this is not the final product, but this needs to be pursued, "

Bourgeois said, noting that a workable travelers' vaccine might help the

harder goal of protecting children in developing countries who die from the

germ. " We hope to ... further rekindle and re-energize people to develop

vaccines against ETEC. "

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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