Patches reduce risk of travellers' diarrhoea
Thursday, 12 Jun 2008 10:17
Travellers could protect themselves from diarrhoea by wearing a patch, research suggests
People heading overseas could avoid the dreaded travellers' diarrhoea by placing patches on their skin, a new study suggests.
Scientists in the US also found that the patches were able to reduce the length and severity of diarrhoea if people do fall ill to it.
About 27 million travellers are affected by acute diarrhoea each year, with cases lasting between four and five days.
Previous research has found that a vaccine targeting a toxin called LT can provide short term protection against diarrhoea, but LT is too toxic to be given by oral, nasal or injection routes.
Dr Gregory Glenn and Dr Sarah Frech from the IOMAI Corporation therefore decided to test whether diarrhoea could be prevented if LT was given in a vaccine via the skin.
They studied 170 healthy adults aged between 18 and 64 who were planning to travel to Mexico or Guatemala.
Participants were given either LT or a placebo (dummy drug) through patches, with the two patients provided two to three weeks apart prior to travel.
While on holiday they kept diaries tracking their stool output.
The researchers found that the number of cases of diarrhoea was higher in the placebo group than in the LT patches group - 22 per cent compared to 15 per cent.
The number of cases of severe diarrhoea was also substantially higher in the placebo and LT patch recipients who became ill had shorter episodes of diarrhoea.
Writing in the Lancet journal the researchers say the findings show "the LT patch conferred a meaningful benefit to the recipients".
"In addition to the biological rationale for delivering antigen to the skin, the patch lends itself to a simple and needle-free application… and has been designed to be suitable for both travellers and use in the developing world," the study's authors conclude.
"This study suggests that [the patch] could protect travellers against this common, debilitating ailment but the recorded efficacy will need confirmation in a phase three trial."