Vaccines effective for prevention of rotavirus diarrhoea

January 01, 0001

Vaccines effective for prevention of rotavirus diarrhoea

Clinical Question: How effective are vaccines for preventing rotavirus diarrhoea?

Bottom line: Compared with placebo, Rotarix (given between 1 and 3 months of age) reduced cases of rotavirus diarrhoea by 83% in the first year and 52% in the second year. It also reduced hospitalisations by 81% after 1 year and 84% at 2 years. Compared with placebo, RotaTeq (given between 1 and 6 months of age) reduced cases of rotavirus diarrhoea by 73% after 1 year and 62% during the 2nd year. It also reduced hospitalisations by 96% after 1 year. The vaccines tested against placebo gave a similar number of adverse events such as deaths, reaction to the vaccine, and others that required discontinuation of the vaccination schedule.

Caveat:All the included trials were placebo controlled, which means there are no data directly comparing Rotarix and RotaTeq. The trials provided only limited data for special groups of children, such as preterm infants and malnourished children.

Context: Rotavirus infections cause over half a million deaths per year in children younger than 5 years, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Since 2009, the World Health Organization has recommended rotavirus vaccination be included in national immunisation programmes, especially in countries with a high burden of diarrhoeal deaths in children younger than 5 years.

Cochrane Systematic Review:Soares-Weiser K et al. Vaccines for preventing rotavirus diarrhoea: vaccines in use. Cochrane Reviews, 2010, Issue 5. Article No. CD008521. DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD008521. This review contains 34 trials involving 175,944 participants.

Cochrane PEARLS Practical Evidence About Real Life Situations. No. 279, July 2010. .
Written by Brian R McAvoy. Published by the Cochrane Primary Care Group

Category: D. Digestive. Keywords: vaccine, rotavirus, prevention
Synopsis edited by Dr Linda French, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 7 December 2010

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Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.