strawberries + salmon

Having completed "The Sirens of Titan" and consumed "Salmon Filet grilled with pesto", strawberries, and lemon peel tea that was actually black tea- it's clear that all 15 of us are settled into our rooms to simply wait until midnight whereupon the nurses will come and ensure there is no food or water left for our fast before Cholera challenge tomorrow morning.

The plan is to rise at 6am and await the results of the randomization which should arrive around 8-8:30am. At that point; those selected will be inoculated. At that point, both groups will wait 90minutes to ensure that none of the alternates are required. Everyone will be able to eat breakfast and then the alternates will be dismissed.

At this point, some explanation is necessary. It's easy enough to google 'Cholera' so I won't drone on about random facts I've copied+pasted from wikipedia. The vaccine that was, hopefully, provided to me on Friday (09.27.13) ten days prior, was a form of CVD 103-HgR. There have actually been a series of studies relating to this vaccine. Some are:

Ryan, E. T., et al. (2006). "Live attenuated oral cholera vaccines." Expert Rev Vaccines 5(4): 483-494.

Richie, E. E., et al. (2000). "Efficacy trial of single-dose live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR in North Jakarta, Indonesia, a cholera-endemic area." Vaccine 18(22): 2399-2410.

Lagos, R., et al. (1995). "Attenuated live cholera vaccine strain CVD 103-HgR elicits significantly higher serum vibriocidal antibody titers in persons of blood group O." Infection and Immunity 63(2): 707-709.

Simply, this study examines the effectiveness of a live, truncated Vibrio cholerae bacteria based off of the previously effective intravenously-administered CVD 103-HgR.

People of the "O" blood type are classically more susceptible to Cholera but, from a number of these studies, have been demonstrated to be more prone to protection via the vaccine. Being O+, this means that there may be an increased protection from the vaccine if that is what is received. Of course, if I didn't, that means the bacteria will be extra deleterious. Either way, I'm not worried. I'm in a hospital. Actually, I will be sorely disappointed if I lose out on the randomization process. I am hoping to consume salmon+strawberries every day. :)