Oral cholera vaccine raises hopes

Researchers in Vietnam have produced a cheap and effective oral vaccine against cholera, reducing the incidence of the disease in an endemic area of the country by 60%.

To test the efficacy of an oral killed cholera vaccine that had been produced locally the Vietnamese team performed an open field trial in 22 653 households in the central coastal city of Hue (Lancet 1997;349:231-5). They found that the number of cases of cholera during an outbreak …