This rotavirus vaccine is a welcome addition to the disease prevention efforts of people around the world. The vaccine is given when a child is 2, 4, and 6 months old. It is placed in the child's mouth and they swallow the vaccine just like the oral polio vaccine. No shots and so this vaccine will be a little easier to give to children.
This vaccine is a really neat product of extensive research on the rotavirus family. Previous researchers have shown that this family of viruses also infect other animals. Rotaviruses that infect other animals do not cause diarrhea in humans. For instance a rhesus monkey rotavirus will grow for a time in a human's intestine however no diarrhea occurs.
It has also be demonstrated that if a person has antibodies to a human rotavirus protein called VP7 (viral protein 7) then they will not get diarrhea when infected with human rotavirus. There are four different kinds of this VP7 protein. Dr. Kapikian and others have been able to produce rhesus monkey rotaviruses that contain these four different VP7 proteins. These four different viruses have then been given to humans. The person does not get diarrhea but does develop an immune reaction to the VP7 proteins from human rotaviruses. If a human rotavirus then infects the person after getting the vaccine they are less likely to develop rotavirus diarrhea.
This vaccine does not prevent all cases of rotavirus diarrhea. Taking the vaccine resulted in 50 percent fewer cases of diarrhea. However, the children that did get diarrhea after receiving the vaccine were much less likely to be hospitalized or to die from dehydration. The only major side effect of the vaccine was a fever that went away within a few days.
Another downside to this vaccine is that it is costly. It costs about $38 U.S. dollars per dose. Three doses are necessary and that raises the cost to $114 U.S. dollars. This is very costly and in many cases too expensive for people in developing countries. However, the company Wyeth-Ayerstd
Go To Page: 1 2
