Free Republic

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,...

WEST POINT, Pa. (AP) -- There's a not-so-secret ingredient used to make Merck & Co.'s new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer: common baker's yeast. But there's nothing simple about the manufacture and marketing of Gardasil, the first cervical-cancer vaccine approved by regulators. The Whitehouse Station, N.J., pharmaceutical giant expects Gardasil to become one of its best-selling products, and the company is making big changes to ensure its launch is successful. Adding to the challenge is that Gardasil is one of three new vaccines Merck has launched this year. The others are Rotateq, designed to prevent rotavirus in children, and Zostavax...