New Vaccine for Rotavirus Diarrhoea in Children

By: Rebecca Kwei – (AMMREN –Ghana), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

A new vaccine to prevent the incidence of rotavirus diarrhoea in children is being tested in three African countries namely Ghana, Kenya and Mali. Rotavirus is a major cause of diarrhoea in children and accounts for 25 percent mortality in children worldwide.

Rotavirus diarrhoea also accounts for about 50 percent hospitalisation of severe diarrhoea and vomiting in children globally but majority of these incidences are recorded in developing countries.

Speaking at the 8th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the INDEPTH Network in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Prof George Armah of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Health Research, Ghana said treatment of diarrhoea was through rehydration if it is caused by a virus and antibiotics if it is bacterial.

However, he noted that there was the need for a rotavirus vaccine to complement existing and improved interventions to control diarrhoea diseases in children since it could be fatal especially in developing countries.

He said studies have shown that hygiene and sanitation measures do not impact
on rotavirus incidence hence prevention through vaccination was the best method for reducing rotavirus mortality.

He noted that diarrhoea was the second leading cause of death in children under five globally and 85 per cent of children would have rotavirus before the third birthday. He said in Ghana, the infection rate is 40 per cent and it is common between October to April during the cool-dry periods.

Already two rotavirus vaccines, Rotarix and Rotateq have been developed and tested in Europe and America and have been found to be efficacious. However, there was the need to test the vaccines in Africa  as well to see its efficacy.

On the rotavirus vaccine introduction in the three African countries, he said about 5000 children are involved in the study with 2,200 of the children being followed up in Navrongo - Ghana.

Five thousand children from the three African countries out of which 2,200 are from Ghana are being used in the vaccine trial to see the protection rate. The study which started in March last year will end in March 2009.

Prof Armah who is leading one of the teams introducing the rotavirus vaccine in Africa said the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends the inclusion of rotavirus vaccination in the national immunisation programmes of developing countries and  it was important for more awareness on the burden of the disease and the potential and efficacy of the vaccine so that it could be introduced early into the Expanded Programme on Immunisation with support from the Gates Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI).