Trials Show Efficacy Of Wyeth's Rotavirus Vaccine

The largest efficacy trial of a rotavirus vaccine in a developingcountry to date has shown that Wyeth-Ayerst's rhesus rotavirus-based quadrivalent oral vaccine reduced severe diarrhea by 88% in 2,207 infants in Venezuela. Data from the trial are reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (October 23 issue).

Rotavirus diarrhea affects 130 million infants and children every year throughout the world, resulting in 873,000 deaths, only 75-150 of these being in the USA.

Although the vaccine has shown high efficacy in preventing severe diarrhea in developed countries (in two studies in the USA and one in Finland, to be discussed later), with protection rates of 80%-91%, its efficacy in the developing world has been less impressive (with a protection rate of 30%-46%), according to the study authors, who included Albert Kapikian from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where the vaccine was developed.