TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Vaccine Pares Viral Illness

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: October 27, 2008

WASHINGTON - A vaccine against rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea in infants, has led to a dramatic drop in hospitalization and emergency room visits since it came on the market two years ago, doctors reported Saturday.

A bonus: The vaccine seems to be preventing illness even in unvaccinated children by cutting the number of infections in the community that children can pick up and spread.

"We're a little surprised by the degree of impact given the coverage we've achieved," said Jane Seward of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only about half of young children had received the vaccine and very few had received all three doses when the studies were done.

Before the vaccine, more than 200,000 U.S. children were taken to emergency rooms and more than 55,000 were hospitalized each year with rotavirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, mostly from January through May. Worldwide, the virus kills 1,600 young children daily.

Since Merck & Co.'s RotaTeq came out in 2006, hospital visits and stays caused by the virus have dropped more than 80 percent, studies by the CDC and several other groups show.

Last winter, rotavirus cases started and peaked two to three months later and were much less extensive than in previous years, CDC scientists report, using data from hospitals in a network that tracks these cases for the CDC.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT