Patch to halt holiday bugs

London: A new skin patch could help millions of travellers avoid being struck down with stomach upsets on holiday.

Preliminary tests found that the vaccination, containing the toxin behind the most common forms of diarrhoea, prevented people falling ill and reduced discomfort for those already affected. A study of travellers, published in the The Lancet, indicated that the patch could be 84 per cent effective overall against diarrhoea.

An estimated 27 million people suffer from bouts of travellers' diarrhoea every year while 210 million children in the developing world suffer from acute forms. The needle-free vaccine protected more than 70 per cent of visitors to Mexico and Guatemala from stomach bugs, popularly known as Montezuma's Revenge, researchers reported.

Even if travellers did get infected with the stomach bug, Iomai Corp's experimental vaccine patch prevented severe illness. "I think it's one of the most exciting new developments in travel medicine," said Dr Herbert DuPont of the University of Texas in Houston, who helped test the vaccine.

"People could buy this and put it on themselves whenever they take a trip. It is the most convenient form of immunisation I have ever seen," DuPont said in a telephone interview. The researchers concluded that the patch "could protect travellers against this common, debilitating ailment".

The needle-free approach could work against other infectious diseases, he said. The company plans a Phase III trial of the vaccine - the last stage of testing before seeking US Food and Drug Administration approval.