| ■ Rotavirus Vaccine Cuts Infant Diarrhea | 2008.11.05 |
| A vaccine against rotavirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea in thousands of children annually, reduced the number of new cases of the illness by at least two-thirds in its second year of use, researchers reported Saturday. Rotateq, made by Merck and approved in 2006, worked so well that it may also have cut the spread to non-immunized children in the United States, according to research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Quest Diagnostics. The vaccine appeared to interrupt the spread of the disease in older children who couldn't have been immunized, Jay Lieberman, medical director of infectious diseases for Quest's Focus Diagnostics unit, told Bloomberg News. "We saw marked declines of rotavirus in every age group, including those 2-to-6 years old for whom the vaccine isn't recommended," he added. "That's because a 2-month old who was vaccinated was less likely to infect the older brother or sister, or other children in day-care who weren't vaccinated." |