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Vaccine cuts severe diarrhoea attacks
An oral vaccine for diarrhoea reduced hospitalisations of children with rotavirus by 70 per cent in Philadelphia, saved money and prevented infections among unvaccinated children, researchers reported yesterday.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:33 October 25, 2008
Washington: An oral vaccine for diarrhoea reduced hospitalisations of children with rotavirus by 70 per cent in Philadelphia, saved money and prevented infections among unvaccinated children, researchers reported yesterday.
Three reports presented to a meeting of infectious disease specialists showed the benefits of the vaccine, which prevents the most common cause of severe diarrhoea.
In one report, Irini Daskalaki of Drexel University College of Medicine reported that hospitals in North Philadelphia had seen a 70 per cent drop in rotavirus-associated hospitalisations since rotavirus vaccinations began in 2006.
Big drop
The number of babies aged 6 to 11 months admitted to the hospital with rotavirus plummeted by 94 per cent, Daskalaki told a meeting of the American Society of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
"The extent of the decrease in cases ... is unprecedented and greater than any variation in numbers previously observed, suggesting that the vaccine played an important role," researchers wrote in a summary released before the presentation.
Merck and Co's Rotateq was recommended in 2006 for routine immunisation of US infants, while GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Rotarix, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in April. Both are considered equally safe.
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis, with vomiting and diarrhoea, in infants and young children.
Before routine vaccination, the condition sent 410,000 children to a doctor every year, with more than 200,000 needing emergency care and 20 to 60 dying in the United States.
Globally, rotavirus kills 1,600 children under age 5 every day.
Doctors had been desperate for a vaccine to prevent the highly contagious infection. But the first one, sold by Wyeth, was pulled from the market in 1999 after it was linked to a rare, life-threatening type of bowel obstruction known as intussusception.
The new vaccines do not have that problem.
A team at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston also found a 94 per cent reduction in diarrhoeal disease after Rotateq was introduced.
Fast track
Staph test time cut
A company that harnesses bacteria-killing viruses said yesterday it has devised a test that can detect dangerous staph infections within hours.
This could allow doctors to begin treating patients right away with the correct drugs, instead of waiting the usual two to three days for a test that grows the germs in test tubes, the researchers said.
The test detects Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in blood within five hours, Longmont, Colorado-based MicroPhage Inc told a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
- Reuters
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