The formula, tested on 100,000 volunteers in Jiangsu provinces, was completely effective after three doses and side effects were "few and mild", they said.

The hepatitis E virus, often transmitted by faecal contamination of water supplies, causes liver inflammation, whose symptoms are jaundice, fever and vomiting. It was only recognised as a distinct disease 30 years ago.

Around a third of the world's population have been infected by the virus, according to figures cited in the study.

Mortality from the disease is low, but people with chronic liver disease and pregnant mothers and their foetuses are badly at risk.

The Jiangsu trial is the third and final phase of the process to assess a new vaccine for safety and effectiveness.

The trialled formula, codenamed HEV 239, is a recombinant vaccine, meaning that it includes a protein from the virus designed to stimulate the body's immune defences.

It was administered to 48,000 healthy adults aged 16-65, while an identical group of counterparts received a placebo. Three doses were issued over six months, and the volunteers were then monitored for a year.

Fifteen fell ill with hepatitis E in the placebo group, but there were no cases in the vaccine group.

Another piece of good news is that the vaccine was also fully effective among those who had received only two doses.

"During a hepatitis E outbreak, or for travellers to an endemic area, protection can be quickly obtained by two vaccine doses given within one month," said the study, headed by Nin-Shao Xia, of the Institute of Diagnostic and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases in Xiamen.

earlier related report
China AIDS campaigner detained: activists
Beijing (AFP) Aug 21, 2010 - A 23-year-old Chinese man who contracted the AIDS virus as a boy through a blood transfusion and who has since campaigned for the rights of AIDS sufferers has been detained, activists said Saturday.

Tian Xi, who told fellow activists that his repeated protests had angered authorities, was detained on Tuesday at a hospital in Henan province's Xincai county before being taken to an unknown location, the campaigners said.

Tian was lobbying for compensation for thousands of Chinese like himself who have contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, via tainted blood supplies.

He learned recently that local officials had urged police to detain him to curtail his work, according to the Chinese group Aizhixing and Meg Davis, the New York-based head of Asia Catalyst, a group which helps to train activists.

"Tian Xi is a sweet guy who has suffered a great deal and who cares deeply about the suffering of others. He is in poor health and we're very concerned about his condition in detention," Davis told AFP.

Police in Gulu, the town where Tian was living, declined to comment, while calls to officials in Xincai county went unanswered.

Tian has in the past worked for Aizhixing, which was instrumental in uncovering a blood-selling scandal in Henan in the 1990s that led to the infection of up to 150,000 people with HIV.

The group -- whose leader Wan Yanhai fled to the United States with his family earlier this year because he said he feared for his safety -- said it was "stunned" by Tian's detention.

"Thousands of people have been infected with HIV through blood sales and blood transfusions, and Tian Xi's case is an emblem of this ongoing disaster," said Davis, who last had contact with Tian on August 13.

China says that at least 740,000 people are living with HIV, but campaigners say the actual figure could be far higher.

The head of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe, warned last year that 50 million people in the country were at risk of contracting the AIDS virus, mainly through unprotected sex or the sharing of needles.

Faced with this problem, the government has started talking more openly about HIV prevention and control in China, where people with AIDS still encounter huge discrimination in employment, education and healthcare.

But the hassling of some independent campaigners and organisations has nevertheless continued.

Like Wan, high-profile AIDS activist Gao Yaojie left China for the United States last year due to ongoing pressure. AIDS campaigner Hu Jia was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2008 on subversion charges.

In July, Tian was held for several hours in a so-called "black jail", or illegal detention centre, in Beijing while on a petitioning trip, Aizhixing said.

Davis said of her last exchange with Tian: "I asked him if there was anything we could do to help, and he replied, 'I don't think I can escape my fate'."

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