Asian studies show potential of vaccine against deadly diarrhea
Because oral vaccines often perform differently in varying settings, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for specific studies on the use of new rotavirus vaccines in the developing world, particularly among impoverished populations of Africa and Asia. Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea among children and claims more than 500,000 young lives each year.
The GAVI Alliance, the public health community, and vaccine manufacturers made an unprecedented commitment to understand how these vaccines would work in developing-world conditions. Initiated in 2006, clinical trials conducted by PATH, the US CDC, WHO, and manufacturers evaluated the safety and efficacy of RotaTeq® (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.) in Bangladesh and Vietnam. The populations studied represented low-income, high-mortality settings in which diarrheal disease is a major cause of child deaths. (Rotavirus vaccines were also evaluated in several African countries.)
Data from the studies revealed that rotavirus vaccines had a significant impact toward reducing severe rotavirus episodes, and illustrate the potential of rotavirus vaccines to have a dramatic impact on child mortality in the developing world.
Contributed by PATH