Medical researchers are looking for volunteers willing to earn $4,250 for participating in their study. The catch? You might get diarrhea for a week, and you'll have to spend up to 11 days in the hospital even if you don't, per Gizmodo. The experiment out of Emory University in Atlanta is called a human challenge trial, which means study participants are deliberately exposed to an infectious disease, per Medical News Today. In this case, they would be exposed to the shigella bacteria, the primary cause of dysentery.
Emory scientists are working on a more potent vaccine to fight shigella because strains resistant to antibiotics have been cropping up. Study volunteers, a total of 120 between the ages of 18 and 49, will drink the bacteria after getting the vaccine or a placebo. All will then be hospitalized for up to 11 days and monitored, and they'll have to be available for outpatient visits for eight months. The trial is being run out of Atlanta and Cincinnati. More details here. (More shigella stories.)