After successful clinical trials in Latin America and England, vaccine to fight rotavirus to hit Indian markets in July A new vaccine to fight rotavirus is set to hit the Indian markets in the second week of July. Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children and is responsible for over a lakh deaths of children below the age of five in the country every year. Dr Nitin Shah, consultant paediatrician at P D Hinduja hospital, says, "Rotavirus is the second largest cause of child mortality after pneumococcal diseases. World Health Organization marks rotavirus vaccine as a high priority vaccine especially for developing countries.' The highly contagious rotavirus is transmitted by hand-to-mouth contact with the infected person's stool. Children can become infected if they put their fingers in their mouths after touching something that has been contaminated. "The vaccine had undergone clinical trials in Latin America and England on 70,000 children below the age of five. The results are commendable with only a few children developing mild diarrhoea and fever as side-effects,' said Dr Miguel O' Ryan, professor and director of microbiology and mycology programme at the Institute of Biomedical Science, University of Chile. Dr O' Ryan was the principal investigator for the multinational trial of the human rotavirus vaccine and is on a countrywide tour interacting with paediatricians about the disease and the vaccine. Dr O'Ryan calls the virus "democratic virus' as it affects children both in lower as well as higher strata of the society. Its prevalence is seen throughout the year. In India, a multi-state study on the effectiveness of the vaccine conducted last year by paediatricians from Pune, Chandigarh and Vellore revealed that the vaccine is highly effective in terms of immune response. During the study the vaccine was administered on 250 children. "The vaccine gives a very good immune response. The vaccine is very important for all the developing countries like India where 20 per cent of diarrhoea is contributed by this virus,' said Dr Anand Pandit, professor and director pediatrics at KEM hospital in Pune, who was a part of this study. Diarrhoea caused by rotavirus is a self-limiting disease, however, till date there was no vaccination to prevent the virus. Currently, oral rehydration salts (ORS) therapy is the most widely used method of treating diarrhoea. Although the vaccine is being regarded as a major breakthrough in the treatment of severe diarrhoea, it comes at a price. At Rs 1,000 per dosage, the cost is barrier to start vaccination on a mass scale. The vaccine has to be taken in oral form six weeks after the birth and four weeks after the first dose. Dr Anand Pandit says, "ICMR is actively involved in developing an Indian vaccine. Once that is successfully tested, the government can then seriously think of introducing it in the national vaccination programme.' The medical community is hopeful that the new vaccine will be able to not just reduce the number of deaths due to severe diarrhoea but also do away with the need for hospitalisation.