The FDA has approved a new oral vaccine, RotaTeq, to prevevnt gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhea) caused by rotavirus, an extremely common virus in infants and toddlers. It is the most common cause of vomiting and diarrhea in the United States, infecting almost all children by the age of 5 years. Overseas, it is a leading killer of children, causing the death of over 500,000 children a year. In the United States, it causes about 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations and over 600,000 ER and doctor visits a year.
The vaccine was studied in over 70,000 children and had few side effects, none of them serious. In 1998 a completely different rotavirus vaccine, made a different way, was on the market briefly. It was taken off the market because it might have caused some cases of intestinal obstruction. To this day, it is still unclear if that vaccine actually caused the obstruction. Nevertheless, it was taken off the market. Now once again there is a vaccine to prevent this disease.
The vaccine is an oral vaccine and is likely to be added to the standard, routine immunization schedule for children in the United States.
