Friday, July 23, 1999
Vaccine could be lifesaver
Children's team attacks rotavirus
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Researchers at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati have developed a new vaccine to prevent a virus that kills about 600,000 children worldwide every year.
For infants in the United States, rotavirus is the most common cause of vomiting and diarrhea requiring hospitalization. Rotavirus is caused when children swallow trace amounts of fecal matter.
Tests have found the new vaccine to be 89 percent effective in preventing the virus. The discovery will be reported in Saturday's edition of the British medical journal The Lancet.
It will be at least three years, however, before the vaccine is marketed. Drs. David Bernstein and Richard Ward, of Children's Hospital, co-discovered the vaccine. They have been working on it since 1989.
The vaccine has been sub-licensed to SmithKline Beecham,a drug company that will continue testing until it receives a license by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the product.
“With a vaccine like this, you worry about a few things: Does it cause a disease itself in some fashion, how well does it protect and for how long?” Dr. Ward said. “They're important questions, and they have to be answered in considerable detail.”
The other approved rotavirus vaccine is temporarily off the market — at least until November — for further testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
CDC officials fear the vaccine may cause intussusception, a rare type of obstruction that occurs when the bowel folds in on itself.
The older vaccine, which is effective in 49 to 68 percent of children, could be pulled permanently if it is found to cause intussusception.
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