The oral cholera vaccine Shanchol is being recommended for Haiti's poor, although sanitation is a better approach to the eradication of cholera. The vaccine protects only 45% of those vaccinated during the first year, and its preparations for use in developing countries contain 6 times the maximum allowable level of a mercury-based preservative that can cause autism. This report on a 2011 field trial in Bangladesh can be read by non-scientists and gives a valuable summary of aspects of the vaccine.
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