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Indian cholera vaccine meets WHO norms

The vaccine, manufactured by Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnics, is cost-effective and can be used by other nations as well in cholera control programmes.

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An India-made oral cholera vaccine meets World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, and has been found by researchers to be highly effective and safe for mass disease prevention use.

The vaccine, manufactured by Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnics, is cost-effective and can be used by other nations as well in cholera control programmes, a study published in The Lancet says.

“This is a unique vaccine. It can take care of hybrid cholera strains circulating in the atmosphere. It also has very good herd immunity — even if the vaccine is administered among 40% of the population it will prevent spread of the disease among the rest.

Besides, being an oral dose it is easy to administer,” said Dr NK Ganguly, former director, Indian Council of Medical Research. Clinical trials involved 107,774 persons in Kolkata.

One group was given the oral vaccine and the other a placebo — a substance having no pharmacological effect but administered to test clinically the efficacy of a biologically active preparation.

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