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Cash strapped university students are being paid as much as £3,500 to be infected with dangerous tropical diseases including typhoid, malaria and pneumonia.

The UK students are among a growing number of healthy volunteers being paid to be infected with exotic bacteria and viruses for scientific research at institutions including Oxford University and Imperial College London.

The UK is a world leader in the study of infectious diseases and the experiments - known as “challenge trials” where human guinea pigs, mainly students, are “challenged” with an infectious disease - have become a popular way to progress the development of new vaccines at a fraction of the cost of field studies.