WHO pushes rotavirus vaccine

The World Health Organisation wants all countries to vaccinate children against a tummy bug that causes high rates of hospital admissions in the West and deaths in the Third World.

Diarrhoea caused by rotaviruses, which are highly infectious, leads to more than 500,000 deaths and 2 million hospitalisations annually among children, the WHO says.

Oral vaccines based on weakened live virus have been available for several years. One of them, Rotarix, costs around $90 for each of the required two doses, in addition to doctor's fees. Its maker says the vaccine is 74 to 90 per cent effective in protecting against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis.

The WHO's recommendation will increase the pressure on the New Zealand Government to pay for vaccination against the disease.

Rotavirus infection is the main cause of hospital admissions for gastroenteritis in children under 5.

A study published in 2006 found rotaviruses result in one in 52 children being hospitalised by 3 years of age.

"Rotavirus diarrhoea is an important, potentially vaccine-preventable cause of hospitalisation in New Zealand children, especially during winter and spring seasons," the researchers concluded.

The clinical director of Auckland University's Immunisation Advisory Centre, Dr Nikki Turner, said about one death a year was attributed to rotavirus infection in New Zealand, but there was still a good case for state funding of vaccination against it to reduce the high rate of hospitalisation.

"I think there's a strong economic argument for funding it on the New Zealand schedule," said Dr Turner, who is also a member of the Ministry of Health's Immunisation Technical Forum.

This committee, which now meets once every three years, in 2006 unsuccessfully recommended adding a rotavirus vaccine to the national immunisation schedule.

Nor did the Government implement the committee's recommendation to fund a chickenpox vaccine, but it did proceed with vaccination against pneumococcal disease and against human papilloma virus, the so-called cervical cancer vaccine.

The ministry said the committee had started its 2009 review of the national schedule. Any changes accepted would be decided upon in the Government's next Budget and implemented from mid-2011.