New Rotavirus Vaccine is Recommended

The U.S. agency overseeing childhood vaccinations Tuesday recommended a new vaccine for routine use against rotavirus infection.

Rotavirus infections are common childhood illnesses that are the single largest infectious disease killer of infants and young children worldwide. Three scientists associated with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The Wistar Institute are co-inventors of the vaccine, based on research dating to 1980.

Meeting Tuesday in Atlanta, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — an expert panel selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — added the new RotaTeq vaccine, manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., to its list of routinely recommended childhood immunizations.

The decision follows the vaccine’s approval for licensing earlier this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Rotavirus affects nearly all children at some point, often with mild symptoms, but in other cases with severe and potentially life-threatening diarrhea and dehydration. It causes tens of thousands of U.S. hospitalizations annually, and around the world, hundreds of thousands of child deaths.

The new vaccine was invented by three Philadelphia scientists, Drs. H. Fred Clark, Paul Offit and Stanley Plotkin.