New York: An inexpensive, little-known cholera vaccine appears to work so well that it can protect entire communities and perhaps head off explosive epidemics like the one that killed nearly 10,000 Haitians in 2010.

A major study published on Wednesday in The Lancet found that the vaccine gave individuals more than 50 percent protection against cholera and reduced life-threatening episodes of the infection by about 40 percent in Bangladesh, where the disease has persisted for centuries.

A patient with cholera symptoms taken to to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) cholera treatment centre in the slum neighbourhood of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince in 2010. Credit:Getty

In a result that surprised researchers, the vaccine worked far better than supplying families with chlorine for their water and soap for hand-washing.