Safety and immunogenicity of a live oral recombinant cholera vaccine VA1.4: a randomized, placebo controlled trial in healthy adults in a cholera endemic area in Kolkata, India.

Background: A live oral cholera vaccine VA 1.4 developed from a non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor strain using ctxB gene insertion was further developed into a clinical product following cGMP and was evaluated in a double-blind randomized placebo controlled parallel group two arm trial with allocation ratio of 1∶1 for safety and immunogenicity in men and women aged 18-60 years from Kolkata, India.

Method: A lyophilized dose of 1.

Effectiveness of zinc supplementation plus oral rehydration salts for diarrhoea in infants aged less than 6 months in Haryana state, India.

Objective: To determine if educating caregivers in providing zinc supplements to infants < 6 months old with acute diarrhoea is effective in treating diarrhoea and preventing acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs), and whether it leads to a decrease in the use of oral rehydration salts (ORS).

Methods: In this retrospective subgroup analysis of infants aged < 6 months, six clusters were randomly assigned to intervention or control sites. Care providers were trained to give zinc and ORS to children with acute diarrhoea at intervention sites, and only ORS at control sites.

Prediction equations for body-fat percentage in Indian infants and young children using skinfold thickness and mid-arm circumference.

The objective of the study was to develop prediction equations for fat-mass percentage in infants in India based on skinfold thickness, mid-arm circumference, and age. Skinfold thicknesses and mid-arm circumference of 46 apparently-healthy infants (27 girls and 19 boys), aged 6-24 months, from among the urban poor attending a well baby clinic of a hospital in Kolkata were measured. Their body-fat percentage was measured using the D2O dilution technique as the reference method.