Vaccine to combat Rotavirus in Lanka

Rotavirus gastroenteritis, an infection that afflicts virtually every child in the world within the first five years of life and accounts for up to half the hospitalisations due to diarrhoea, can now be prevented in Sri Lanka with the launch in December 2007 of Rotarix an oral two-dose vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals, one of the world's leading manufacturers of vaccines.

Already licensed in over 100 countries and launched in 61 of them where some 14 million doses have been distributed, Rotarix has shown up to 100 per cent efficacy in protecting infants against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis in clinical studies involving over 70,000 infants, its manufacturer told medical professionals at the launch of the vaccine in Colombo last week.

In Europe, where Rotarix was approved in February 2006 for vaccination of infants from the age of six weeks, the vaccine has prevented 96 per cent of hospitalisations due to rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) and reduced the need for medical attention by 84 per cent. The vaccine is now included in the national immunisation programs of USA, Australia, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and Luxembourg.

The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were the first Asian countries to license Rotarix.

"The arrival of this vaccine in our country will be a source of great relief to parents of children under the age of five, said Managing Director of GSK (Pharmaceuticals) in Sri Lanka Stuart Chapman. "About 90 per cent of the 611,000 deaths of children annually due to rotavirus gastroenteritis occur in Asia and Africa, and it is time that steps are taken to protect our infants from this disease."