A new cholera vaccine begins protecting rabbits from the fatal disease within 24 hr of injection. With only one U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved vaccine in circulation and an estimated 2.9 million cases of cholera each year, this quick-acting treatment has the potential to save thousands of lives.
Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Infection is characterized by profuse diarrhea and vomiting; without treatment, cholera can spell death through dehydration within a few hours.
A team of researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) created the new vaccine using the strain of V. cholerae responsible for the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti, which is now the most prominent strain. The other vaccine continues to use strains of V. cholerae that are both extinct and highly pathogenic, says HHMI investigator Matthew Waldor. The extinct cholera...
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