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Tuesday, October 21, 2003
World experts rush vaccine for deadly rotavirus
MANILA -- Health experts from around the world pledged here Tuesday to boost surveillance and develop a vaccine against the little-known rotavirus, the common cause of diarrhea among children blamed for nearly half a million deaths yearly.
The Asian Rotavirus Surveillance Network (ARSN) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organized the conference to boost awareness of the rotavirus, listed as among the deadliest viruses in the world, that greatly affects developing countries.
World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the Philippines Jean Marc Olive said vaccines being developed by private biomedical companies with the help of the ARSN are "currently in late-stage development."
However, he stressed there needed to be a stronger push to inform the public of the rotavirus, which causes severe dehydrating diarrhea among children.
"In the Philippines, few physicians and policy makers... are aware of the importance of rotavirus, or even the name of the disease," Olive told the experts as he opened the two-day meeting in the Philippines capital.
Even fewer might suspect that this disease could be prevented by vaccine within a few years. Rarely is the diagnosis ever made. Yet this common, almost nameless infection touches every child born in this country and sends hundreds of thousands for treatment, tens of thousands to hospitals and several thousands to their graves each year.
Papers presented at the conference showed that rotavirus causes approximately 111 million episodes of gastroenteritis requiring home care, 25 million clinic visits, two million hospitalizations and an average of 440,000 deaths among children under five.
Children in poor countries account for about 82 percent of all deaths, and the high incidence of rotavirus "underscores the urgent need for interventions" including development of a vaccine, the documents showed.
There is, however, also a prevalence of the disease in highly developed or industrialized countries, indicating that improvements in water supply, hygiene and sanitation are not enough to combat rotavirus.
"Among the many causes of childhood diarrhea, rotavirus is clearly the most important. It knows no national boundaries and infects children the world over," Philippine Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said, noting that it also affects parents who have to take time off from work to care for their sick children.
"It is the diarrheal illness most likely to fail treatment with oral rehydration therapy because of the associated vomiting and inherent severity," he said.
"And it will not go away with improvements in water, hygiene and sanitation. New vaccines hold the key to prevention and control."
In 1998, Wyeth Laboratories developed Rotashield, the first rotavirus vaccine and licensed it in the United States for the routine immunization of infants.
Nine months later, its use was suspended after complications were reported, eventually leading to a halt in production.
The vaccine had held "the promise of early relief to this killer," Dayrit said, noting that four million children have died in the long period between the withdrawal of that vaccine and the licensing of drugs still in clinical trials.
"We cannot wait to move our agenda forward," he said. |
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