Scientists have developed a pill to prevent ‘Delhi Belly’ — a condition that causes cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea due to intake of contaminated food and water — in those travelling to India and other tropical countries.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have produced a new vaccine that can be swallowed by travellers to help them fight the bacteria that causes the illness. Delhi belly, or traveller’s tummy, affects an estimated 10 million people each year and up to half of all international travellers suffer from it in some form. It is most
common in India and other tropical countries, The Telegraph reported. The new pill targets one of the main causes of the disease - enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. It will also offer protection against another travellers’ disease - typhoid.
Professor Nigel Slater, who has led the work at the University of Cambridge’s department of chemical engineering and biotechnology, said they were planning to start clinical trials of the vaccine later this year.
“The vaccine we have produced is a powder so it is very stable and does not need to be kept in cold storage or carries any of the problems associated with needles,” he said. “It is currently targeting two main bacteria the E coli that causes Delhi belly and Salmonella that causes typhoid.”
“If you were going away for a holiday or on business to India or another country where these diseases are known you would just need to swallow a capsule,” he said. The scientists have found that they can introduce a small segment of DNA into harmless Salmonella bacteria so they look like enterotoxigenic E coli to the immune system.