Summary of the thirty-first United States-Japan Joint Conference on Cholera and Related Diarrheal Diseases.

The 31st United States-Japan Cholera and Related Diarrheal Diseases Conference was held in conjunction with the United States-Japan Malnutrition Conference at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, 30 November to 3 December 1995. In addition to the overall conference theme of the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of enteric infections and malnutrition, researchers described substantial advances in cholera epidemiology, detection, molecular mechanisms, and pathophysiology plus new mechanisms for enterotoxigenic, enteroadherent, enterohemorrhagic, and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli. There was also emphasis on new work with and vaccine development with Bacteroides fragilis and Yersinia, Shigella, and Salmonella species.