Free Republic

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today revised its recommendations for rotavirus vaccines for the prevention of the disease in infants and has determined that it is appropriate for clinicians and health care professionals to resume the use of Rotarix and to continue the use of RotaTeq.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that health authorities in all nations routinely vaccinate young children against rotavirus, which causes 2 million hospitalizations and 500,000 deaths from severe diarrhoeal dehydration every year. Rotavirus vaccines are already recommended for use in the Americas and Europe. But more than 85% of deaths caused by rotavirus occur in developing countries in Asia and Africa, says the WHO. The recommendation was made by the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, which reviewed a clinical trial of GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine in South Africa and Malawi that cut the occurrence of severe diarrhoeal episodes. RotaTeq,...