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In Memoriam
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co.'s vaccine against rotavirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea in thousands of children annually, worked so well it may have cut the spread to non-immunized children in the U.S., researchers said.
Merck's Rotateq reduced the number of new cases of rotavirus by at least two-thirds in its second year of use, according to research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Quest Diagnostics Inc.
Children are urged to get the three-shot series of Rotateq immunizations at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. The vaccine, which was approved in 2006, appeared to interrupt the spread of the disease in older children who couldn't have been immunized, said Jay Lieberman, medical director of infectious diseases for the Focus Diagnostics unit at Madison, New Jersey-based Quest.
``We saw marked declines of rotavirus in every age group, including those 2 to 6 years old for whom the vaccine isn't recommended,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``That's because a 2-month old who was vaccinated was less likely to infect the older brother or sister, or other children in day- care who weren't vaccinated.''
About 55,000 children are hospitalized in the U.S. annually because of illness and dehydration caused by rotavirus, and the disease kills more than 600,000 children worldwide each year, CDC said.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc gained approval for its two-shot Rotarix vaccine against the same virus earlier this year.
Rotateq last year generated $525 million in sales.
Herd Immunity
Slowing the spread of the disease among unvaccinated people is a phenomenon known as herd immunity, which is a community's resistance to illness. While CDC researchers also found deep reductions in the number of children with rotavirus, they lacked data on children's ages that would have pointed to herd immunity, said Umesh Parasher, who leads the Atlanta-based agency's rotavirus epidemiology team.
``I think there is potential for herd immunity,'' he said Oct. 23 in a telephone interview. ``We don't have data from this system to support that hypothesis, but the data would suggest that there is some herd immunity this year.''
Lieberman and Parasher presented their results at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy conference in Washington. Lieberman looked at 132,000 rotavirus cases recorded in Quest's database from 2003 through July 2008. Positive tests declined 76 percent in the two most recent seasons compared with the 2003 through 2006 seasons, before Rotateq was cleared for sale.
The declines varied from state to state, Lieberman said. Cases in Delaware, North Carolina, and Alabama fell more than 95 percent. Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Arizona each saw declines of less than 35 percent.
Parasher reported on rotavirus cases from 2000 through July 2008, using data from 33 sentinel laboratories that are part of a voluntary reporting system across the U.S. His study found a 67 percent decline in rotavirus cases in the most recent two years, compared with the period from 2000 through 2006.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 25, 2008 11:30 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a4HyoUicPkFY&refer=home
Merck's Rotateq reduced the number of new cases of rotavirus by at least two-thirds in its second year of use, according to research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Quest Diagnostics Inc.
Children are urged to get the three-shot series of Rotateq immunizations at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. The vaccine, which was approved in 2006, appeared to interrupt the spread of the disease in older children who couldn't have been immunized, said Jay Lieberman, medical director of infectious diseases for the Focus Diagnostics unit at Madison, New Jersey-based Quest.
``We saw marked declines of rotavirus in every age group, including those 2 to 6 years old for whom the vaccine isn't recommended,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``That's because a 2-month old who was vaccinated was less likely to infect the older brother or sister, or other children in day- care who weren't vaccinated.''
About 55,000 children are hospitalized in the U.S. annually because of illness and dehydration caused by rotavirus, and the disease kills more than 600,000 children worldwide each year, CDC said.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc gained approval for its two-shot Rotarix vaccine against the same virus earlier this year.
Rotateq last year generated $525 million in sales.
Herd Immunity
Slowing the spread of the disease among unvaccinated people is a phenomenon known as herd immunity, which is a community's resistance to illness. While CDC researchers also found deep reductions in the number of children with rotavirus, they lacked data on children's ages that would have pointed to herd immunity, said Umesh Parasher, who leads the Atlanta-based agency's rotavirus epidemiology team.
``I think there is potential for herd immunity,'' he said Oct. 23 in a telephone interview. ``We don't have data from this system to support that hypothesis, but the data would suggest that there is some herd immunity this year.''
Lieberman and Parasher presented their results at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy conference in Washington. Lieberman looked at 132,000 rotavirus cases recorded in Quest's database from 2003 through July 2008. Positive tests declined 76 percent in the two most recent seasons compared with the 2003 through 2006 seasons, before Rotateq was cleared for sale.
The declines varied from state to state, Lieberman said. Cases in Delaware, North Carolina, and Alabama fell more than 95 percent. Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Arizona each saw declines of less than 35 percent.
Parasher reported on rotavirus cases from 2000 through July 2008, using data from 33 sentinel laboratories that are part of a voluntary reporting system across the U.S. His study found a 67 percent decline in rotavirus cases in the most recent two years, compared with the period from 2000 through 2006.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 25, 2008 11:30 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a4HyoUicPkFY&refer=home