New & improved rotavirus vaccine to be trialed in Melbourne

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJul 20 2010

Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children and kills half a million children each year, hospitalising another two million. Rotavirus gastroenteritis is a mild to severe disease characterised by vomiting, watery diarrhoea, and low-grade fever. The virus is transmitted by the faecal-oral route. It infects and damages the cells that line the small intestine and causes gastroenteritis.

The World Health Organization last year recommended that all children be vaccinated against the disease in an effort to reduce child mortality. In Australia the death toll from the disease is low but many children need hospitalization for it. The estimated cost to the Australian health system comes in at $30 million.

Now a vaccine is being developed against rotavirus in Melbourne. At present Australian children were given rotavirus vaccine at the age of six to eight weeks since 2007. This new vaccine will be applicable to infants from birth.

This will also mean that developing nations that harbor more than 90% of total cases and lose many children each year will be able to protect their infants better. Lead researcher Professor Julie Bines, of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute feels that this new vaccine would be “a contribution of major importance to global child health by Australian researchers.” It was at this institute in 1973 that Professor Ruth Bishop discovered the rotavirus. Dr. Bishop said, “It's distressing even to see children in this hospital [the Royal Children's] who are so dehydrated they are close to death… Children in our community have access to prompt medical treatment and rehydration, but in developing countries, the tragedy is that so many lives have been lost and continue to be lost.”

At present the study is recruiting about 20 babies for a clinical trial of the new vaccine, which will be given orally in a single dose. If successful, it will be tested next year in larger trials in Indonesia and New Zealand, and could be on the market within five years.