Abstract

Rotavirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide and infects almost all children in the first 5 years of life with severe dehydrating gastroenteritis occurring primarily among children 4 to 36 months of age Rotavirus causes an estimated 600 000 deaths and more than 2 million hospitalizations each year A tetravalent rhesus human reassortant rotavirus vaccine Rotashield was licensed in 1998 for routine immunization of infants in the United States However the vaccine was subsequently withdrawn because of a likely association with intestinal intussusception Recently the efficacy and safety of two new rotavirus vaccines the monovalent human rotavirus vaccine HRV Rotarix and the pentavalent human bovine reassortant vaccine PRV RotaTeq was evaluated in large scale trials of more than 130 000 infants The two new rotavirus vaccines have shown good clinical efficacy in preventing rotavirus gastroenteritis especially severe disease These vaccines prevent about 74 percent of all rotavirus cases and about 98 percent of the most severe cases including 96 percent of rotavirus cases requiring hospitalization There was no association between the new rotavirus vaccines and increased risk of intussusception Today these two new rotavirus vaccines have been licensed in more than 90 countries and are used routinely in several countries such as USA Mexico Brazil Venezuela and Panama Vaccine doses should be administered at 2 and 4 months of age 2 doses for HRV or at 2 4 and 6 months 3 doses for PRV The first dose should be administered between 6 and 12 weeks of age; immunization should not be initiated for infants older than 12 weeks of age for PRV or 14 weeks of age for HRV All doses of vaccine should be administered by 24 weeks of age for HRV or 32 weeks of age for PRV Turk Arch Ped 2007; 42 Suppl: 36 42 Key words: Infant reassortant rotavirus vaccines rotavirus

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call