This is the largest and most successful trial to date of a rotavirus vaccine among children in a developing country. Results appeared October 23 in The New England Journal of Medicine. This is the first study designed to determine if the vaccine prevents severe illness in a developing country where rotavirus circulates year-round rather than seasonally. Children in developing countries more often develop severe and fatal illness.
Symptoms develop quickly and, in addition to diarrhea, include vomiting, fever, and dehydration.
In severe cases, a child can experience 10 to 20 episodes of diarrhea and 10 to 15 vomiting episodes per day. Dehydration can be reversed through oral rehydration therapy or, if more serious, through hospitalization and intravenous fluids. Although effective, these therapies are not readily available or utilized in many parts of the developing world, Dr. Kapikian says. The Venezuelan study began in March 1992 and was conducted at a hospital specializing in obstetrics and pediatrics in a poor urban area southwest of Caracas. The hospital team enrolled 2,207 full-term, healthy infants, each assigned at random to receive three doses total of either the vaccine or a placebo.