WHO Urges All Children Be Given Rotavirus Vaccine
The World Health Organizations is calling for an oral rotavirus vaccine to be given to all children as a routine vaccination, Reuters reported.
Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe gastroenteritis, including vomiting and diarrhea, in infants and young children – killing an estimated 1,600 children under the age of 5 every day, mostly in Africa and Asia.
The rotavirus vaccine, which has become standard for children in Europe and the Americas, had previously not been tested and approved for low-income settings where the dehydrating disease is most lethal.
Demand for Merck’s RotaTeq, GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix vaccines in Africa and Asia, and from health charities will be raised due to the U.N. agency’s new global guidance.
Tachi Yamada of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the WHO recommendation clears the way for vaccines that will protect children in the developing world from one of the most deadly diseases they face.
"We need to act now to deliver vaccines to children in Africa and Asia, where most rotavirus deaths occur," he said.
The first Wyeth-produced vaccine developed to fight rotavirus was pulled from the market in 1999 after it was linked to a rare, life-threatening type of bowel obstruction known as intussusception, a problem the Merck and Glaxo vaccines don’t have.
Clinical trials in poor communities in South Africa and Malawi showed the new oral vaccines significantly reduced severe diarrhea episodes related to rotavirus, the WHO said.
Trials are continuing in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ghana, Mali and Kenya, but the WHO said the guidance was issued ahead of those full results "since available evidence indicates that efficacy data can be extrapolated to populations with similar mortality patterns regardless of geographic location."
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), a Geneva-based international procurer and WHO partner, is currently assisting developing countries wanting help to distribute the rotavirus vaccine.
A new “accelerated and integrated approach” to tackle rotavirus diarrhea and pneumonia is being developed by GAVI, the WHO and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.
The WHO said those two vaccine-preventable diseases account for more than 35 percent of the world’s child deaths each year””most coming from poor countries.
However, it also warned of the many different causes of diarrheal disease and stressed continued efforts to improve water quality, sanitation standards and access to rehydration salts.
"We are extremely excited about the potential to offer African and Asian countries funding to introduce rotavirus vaccines," said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, chief executive officer of GAVI.
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