| ■ Rotavirus Vaccine Trials Show Positive Results in Africa, Asia | 2010.08.06 |
| FRIDAY, Aug. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies find that a vaccine against rotavirus is safe and effective in preventing severe rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVG), which is characterized by diarrhea, vomiting and fever, and causes the deaths of more than half a million children worldwide each year. The researchers said their findings, published online Aug. 6 in The Lancet, support calls by international experts to make the vaccine available in Asia and Africa, where these two studies were conducted. The first study included 2,036 infants, aged 4 to 12 weeks, in Bangladesh and Vietnam. The children were randomly selected to receive either three oral doses of Merck's pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) or a placebo at six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks of age. At the end of the nearly two years of follow-up, there were 38 cases of severe RVG in the vaccine group, compared with 71 cases in the placebo group. That means the vaccine was 48 percent effective. Rates of serious side effects were 2.5 percent in the vaccine group and 2 percent in the placebo group, the investigators found. |