Glaxo rotavirus vaccine highly effective: study

Glaxo rotavirus vaccine highly effective: study
A staff member of a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) laboratory works in Singapore March 21, 2007. GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Rotarix vaccine given along with other routine infant shots is highly effective at protecting against rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhoea in young children, researchers said on Friday. (Nicky Loh/Reuters)LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Rotarix vaccinegiven along with other routine infant shots is highly effectiveat protecting against rotavirus, the most common cause ofsevere diarrhoea in young children, researchers said on Friday.
New data from a large European trial, published in theLancet journal, showed the oral vaccine worked against the fivemost commonly circulating rotavirus types -- G1, G2, G3, G4 andG9 -- responsible for 98 percent of rotavirus gastroenteritis.
The researchers found that after one dose of the vaccine,24 out of 2,572 infants given the vaccine had rotavirusgastroenteritis episodes of any severity compared to 94 out of1,302 given placebo, giving a vaccine efficacy of 87.1 percent.
Vaccine efficacy after two doses over two rotavirus seasonsremained high at 78.9 percent and was 90.4 percent againstsevere rotavirus gastroenteritis, Timo Vesikari of Finland'sUniversity of Tampere and colleagues reported.
"Our study findings show that, if integrated into routineinfant immunization schedules, vaccination with RIX4414(Rotarix) could result in significant reduction not only ofrotavirus disease burden but also of severe pediatricgastroenteritis during the first two years of life," they said.
Rotavirus kills an estimated 611,000 children worldwideevery year, the vast majority of them in Africa and Asia, andthe arrival of a new generation of oral vaccines against thedisease has been welcomed by healthcare workers.
But some experts caution against assuming that vaccineslike Glaxo's Rotarix and Merck & Co Inc's rival product RotaTeqwill work equally well in all countries.
In a commentary in the Lancet, Australian pediatric expertsKeith Grimwood and Julie Bines said virus diversity in Africaand Asia meant no global vaccination recommendations could bemade until vaccine trials were completed in these regions.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Cowell)