Researchers Tackle 'Travel' Tummy

Holidaymakers may be comforted to know that traveller's diarrhoea could be a thing of the past. Scientists at the UK's University of Birmingham's Medical School are set to sequence the DNA of the bacteria, identifying the causes of the illness and pointing the way to better cures.

Some 50% of travellers from industrialised nations to less developed countries experience some degree of stomach problems and behind all the jokes about "Delhi Belly" there lies a very serious medical problem.

Enterotoxigenic E.coli (ETEC) is the most common cause of food and water-borne human diarrhoea world-wide. In developing countries there are an estimated 650 million cases per year, resulting in 800,000 deaths from dehydration, primarily in children under the age of five.

Once the elements of DNA that causes diarrhoea is identified drugs can be targeted to inhibit these bacteria; possibly even leading to a vaccine against the bugs.