Overseas travellers may be able to reduce the risk of diarrhoea by taking a vaccine in the form of a patch, scientists have revealed.
The patch can be worn on the skin, enabling the vaccine to penetrate the skin and combat travellers' diarrhoea.
Researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health found that it greatly reduced the severity of diarrhoea, with only one out of 59 volunteers reporting severe diarrhoea compared with 12 out of 111 who received a placebo.
Diarrhoea also lasted for only half a day on average in vaccinated patients, in contrast to those in the placebo group, who typically experienced diarrhoea for two days.
The study appears in the latest issue of the Lancet medical journal and principal investigator Professor Herbert DuPont said that the patch could 'fundamentally change the way we approach prevention of this disease'.
The expert, who is professor and director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas School of Public Health, added that the vaccine may have the potential 'to not only mitigate a disease that sickens millions each year but also keep some patients from going on to develop the chronic symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome'.
The patch can be worn on the skin, enabling the vaccine to penetrate the skin and combat travellers' diarrhoea.
Researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health found that it greatly reduced the severity of diarrhoea, with only one out of 59 volunteers reporting severe diarrhoea compared with 12 out of 111 who received a placebo.
Diarrhoea also lasted for only half a day on average in vaccinated patients, in contrast to those in the placebo group, who typically experienced diarrhoea for two days.
The study appears in the latest issue of the Lancet medical journal and principal investigator Professor Herbert DuPont said that the patch could 'fundamentally change the way we approach prevention of this disease'.
The expert, who is professor and director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas School of Public Health, added that the vaccine may have the potential 'to not only mitigate a disease that sickens millions each year but also keep some patients from going on to develop the chronic symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome'.
Labels: Travel Health
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