New Rotavirus Vaccine on the Horizon?

With the lack of an effective treatment for the viral infection and the expense and lack of intravenous fluid replacement therapy in many parts of the world it seems that a vaccine would be the most likely to quell this massive and deadly epidemic. Since the 1970's companies have been trying to come up with an effective vaccine. In 1998 a company in the U.S. was permitted by the FDA to start immunizing children with their rotavirus vaccine (Rotashield^®). Unfortunately, the vaccine was associated with a serious and deadly bowel obstruction (intussusception) in 1 in 10,000 children. The company took the vaccine from the market in 1999.

Since then several companies have been working to develop an effective vaccine for this infection. Recently, two companies have completed the last phases of human testing (RotaTeq; Merck, and Rotarix; GlaxoSmithKline). The Rotarix vaccine has been licensed in Mexico and is in the last phase of human clinical trials elsewhere. The RotaTeq vaccine clinical trials have just recently been completed (April , 2005). These vaccines were shown to be from 72-75 percent effective in preventing rotavirus gastroenteritis episodes. They were from 85-100 percent effective in preventing severe disease episodes. Neither of these two vaccines appear to cause the severe bowel obstruction associated with the Rotashield vaccine. Who knows maybe within another decade or two another cause of severe childhood illness might become a rarity.

For more information:

http://www.rotavirusvaccine.org/

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/rotavirus.htm

http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/rotavirus.html

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap33.html

Take Care and Think Microbiologically! For more microbiology articles go to Suite101:Microbiology.

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