Progress in enteric vaccine development

Enteric infections resulting in diarrhoea are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality, particularly in children in developing countries. They are also a common cause of disease among travellers to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Recently, effective, live and inactivated oral and parenteral vaccines against some of the most severe enteric infections—cholera and typhoid fever—have been licensed in several countries. Different candidate vaccines against rotavirus, Shigella and ETEC diarrhoea have also been developed and tested for safety and immunogenicity in developed as well as in developing countries. The protective efficacy of several of these vaccines has also been tested, either in human volunteer challenge studies or in field trials. In this chapter we describe the properties and availability of the recently licensed vaccines and present an update on the diverse efforts being made to achieve new or improved vaccines against the most prevalent enteropathogens.