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In 1976, at the behest of a U.S. government panel, Myron "Mike" Levine of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore began intentionally giving humans V. cholerae. He is still doing so today.

Forty years ago Levine was one of a tiny cadre of researchers doing so-called human challenge studies—intentionally infecting people with V. cholerae and other pathogens to test drugs and vaccines. But in the past few decades, this practice, which has a long and checkered past, "has become much more mainstream," Levine says. Stricter safety procedures and new ways to weaken pathogens to reduce their risks are leading investigators in industry, universities, and government to take a new look at human challenge trials, which offer a powerful tool for studying diseases and potential therapies. There's even a commercial company, hVIVO in London, that specializes in human challenges. Today, people are being deliberately infected with malaria, influenza, shigella, dengue, norovirus, tuberculosis, rhinovirus, Escherichia coli, typhoid, giardia, and campylobacter.

[...] So there was considerable concern when NIAID's Matthew Memoli proposed new human challenge studies with influenza in 2011, which ultimately aimed to test novel treatments and vaccines. Some of his colleagues were so wary that the ethics department at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIAID's parent, was asked to conduct a formal review of the protocol. "We went through a lot of steps," Memoli says. The ethicists were particularly concerned about the proposed "high levels of payment"—up to $4000—but deemed this was not an "undue influence" because no one had an obligation to accept the offer.