India is set to get its first cholera vaccine, with the trial on humans starting next month.

The trial will be carried out in Calcutta on 110,000 people of various age groups. For conducting the trial, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Calcutta, has tied up with International Vaccine Institute (IVI), Seoul, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

JICA has provided a fund of Rs 92 crore for setting up a state-of-the-art laboratory for research on diarrhoeal diseases, which was inaugurated on Friday.

According to studies conducted by various agencies, two out of 1,000 persons in India are affected by cholera. One per cent of the patients die every year. The Union health ministry is also stressing prevention of diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera. ?We are looking forward to preventive rather than curative steps for these diseases,? said Union health minister A. Ramadoss.

?The plans for the trial are being laid out. We will approach the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the state government for the formal approval,? said Deepika Sur, deputy director of NICED. ?IVI is providing funds and knowhow, while JICA is giving the equipment,? said Sur. NICED will be the implementing agency.

According to Sur, the only time such a trial took place was 30 years ago.

?However, it could not be completed because of some local problems. This will be the biggest trial for cholera vaccine,? she said.

?A one-year census for the trial has been completed and we will start administering the vaccine on the chosen population by the end of July. The trial will go on for two-and-a-half years,? said Yoshifumi Takeda, chief adviser of the JICA-NICED project and ex-director general of National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo.

?The trial had been extremely successful in Vietnam and Bangladesh,? informed Takeda.

The vaccine has been prepared by a Vietnam-based company, which has transferred the knowhow to a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company.

?We had requested the Hyderabad-based company to acquire the technical and administrative clearances. The technology was transferred in January,? said Sur.

Takeda said another joint venture on diarrhoea prevention is being planned by Yakult, a Japanese company firm probiotic products. The company is planning to launch its probiotic drink, Yakult, in India next year. According to the manufacturers, the fermented milk drink contains live bacteria that helps maintain the balance of the digestive system.

?We will hold talks with NICED-JICA for starting a trial of our health drink in Calcutta,? said Kiyoshi Oike, managing director of Yakult Danone India.