FRIDAY, June 9, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Your young child has been struggling with diarrhea, as well as fever, upset stomach and vomiting. Chances are good that a nasty, unpredictable bug called rotavirus is to blame.
The good news: A newly approved vaccine can help short-circuit the misery.
Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea in young children, said Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a professor of pediatrics at Brown University, and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases. "It survives for long periods of time on surfaces. If you go to a day-care center, probably everything in the day-care center is coated with rotavirus."
"Almost every child has had rotavirus at least once by the time they reach 5 years old," Dennehy added. "It initially starts off with fever, then the child starts vomiting and will vomit for a couple of days. From there, they go on to develop the diarrhea. They get dehydrated very easily because of that," she added.
Sometimes, a trip to the doctor is needed; in more severe cases, a child must be hospitalized and rehydrated. "We estimate there are about 400,000 doctor visits a year due to rotavirus," Dennehy said. "One in every seven kids have to go to the doctor and one in 70 are hospitalized by age 5" because of the virus, Dennehy said.
With symptoms that can last up to nine days, rotavirus is to blame for an estimated 30 to 40 deaths each year. It's also responsible for up to $1 billion in direct and indirect health-care costs annually among children under 5 years of age.
"Rotavirus is not a disease to brush off," said Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services on Long Island, N.Y. It can become quite worrisome, she added, especially if a child becomes dehydrated.
But now, there's a new vaccine can offers substantial protection. Called RotaTeq, the live vaccine was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in February for use in children at ages 2 months, 4 months and 6 months of age.
The vaccine's maker, Merck & Co., began shipping supplies to doctors' offices a week later, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Allen.
The three-dose vaccine isn't intended for children older than age 6 months, Koslap-Petraco said, because the testing that led to FDA approval was limited to the younger age group. "It was licensed only for this age group [2, 4 and 6 months] based on the safety and effectiveness of it in the studies," she added.
"People should not be rushing off to get their older children vaccinated," Dennehy said.
RotaTeq was tested on more than 70,000 children, according to the FDA, with half getting the vaccine and half getting a placebo. The vaccine prevented 74 percent of all rotavirus cases and 98 percent of severe cases, the agency said. In addition, it prevented approximately 96 percent of hospitalizations.
One concern during the trials was that the new vaccine not increase the risk of intussusception, a condition in which the intestine twists or blocks. About one in 2,000 healthy young infants and children gets this condition annually, according to the FDA, but an earlier rotavirus vaccine, approved in 1998, was found to heighten this risk. It was subsequently withdrawn from the market.
But the new vaccine was not found to contribute to intussusception, the FDA said.
In February, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices recommended use of the vaccine for infants. The American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases is reviewing the matter, Dennehy said, adding that the academy often follows the lead of the CDC.
The vaccine isn't perfect, Dennehy said. "It is most effective against moderate to severe disease." The vaccine includes small amounts of the five live rotavirus strains that circulate most often in the United States, she said.
More information
To learn more about rotavirus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
