Although this product met all specifications at the time of release, its potency fell below specification before the product's expiration date. All 3 lots were prepared from the same initial bulk lot. To help ensure all persons who received a vaccination from 1 of the recalled lots are alerted, the company is contacting all customers who received a shipment of the recalled lots. A pot-pourri of parasites, bacteria, viruses, and toxins can trigger diarrhoea, but scientists now agree that rotaviruses are by far the most important agents. Only recently, a new rotavirus vaccine promised to eradicate the most severe forms of the illness, and was licensed in the USA amid much excitement.
Rotaviruses are egalitarian viruses, infecting all children, whether rich or poor.
The yawning gap in health provision between the well-off and the poor is the deciding factor. In affluent countries, severe gastroenteritis may lead to a great many hospital admissions, but prompt and effective rehydration therapy keep it in check. In poorer countries, however, where treatment comes either too late or is difficult to deliver, severe diarrohea kills one child in 40 during the first 5 years of life. The gallery of diarrhoeal agents boasted a small number of bacteria and parasites, which could hardly account for all gastrointestinal infections. RotaShield, an oral vaccine for rotavirus, is Kapikian's breakthrough and the result of 25 years of research.