Vaccine Candidate Could Prevent Norovirus

An experimental vaccine against the human norovirus--the bug behind about 90 percent of highly contagious nonbacterial illnesses that cause diarrhea and vomiting--can generate a strong immune response in mice without appearing to cause the animals any harm, according to a new study.

Using a novel viral vector-based method to grow and deliver the vaccine--a technique that's shown promise in other agents designed to fight such infections as HIV and hepatitis C--the researchers are the first to test this vaccine design method's effectiveness against the human norovirus.