India develops low-cost vaccine

Rotavirus kills thousands of children each year New Delhi - Arabstoday Scientists in India have developed a low-cost rotavirus vaccine that could prevent severe infant diarrhea. At $1 per dose, it could save thousands of children's lives each year in Asia and Africa. At a fraction of the cost of existing rotavirus vaccines, Rotavac could help prevent severe diarrhea and dehydration, which each year claim the lives of tens of thousands of infants in developing countries in Asia and Africa. The rotavirus kills almost half a million children under the age of five each year. India has the highest number of deaths - about 100,000 children die each year from severe diarrhea and dehydration caused by the virus. Neighbouring Pakistan and, in Africa, Nigeria, suffer a combined 80,000 child deaths annually. Two existing vaccines are available on the Indian market. But they are relatively expensive at about $18 (14 euros) per dose. The new vaccine costs just $1 per dose. It was developed in a public-private partnership in India by pediatric scientist, Dr MK Bhan, and Dr Roger Glass, director of the Fogarty International Center in the United States. Their phase three clinical trials involved 7,000 infants in three India states. The trials showed the vaccine to be safe and effective - even in response to various virus strains. "Almost 40 to 50 per cent of all severe diarrhea cases are due to rotavirus - it is now the predominant cause of diarrheal deaths and hospitalisations," said Bhan. "This is particularly important for us because diarrhea affects the poor and the outcome is the worst in them. And for most poor families and women, negotiating hospitals and negotiating doctors particularly in rural areas is very complex." Glass said their work was spurred when they discovered a particular strain of rotavirus in newborn babies. "Normally rotavirus does not affect newborns, but this strain did," he said. "The early research together was to show that this infection caused a good immune response, which is absolutely necessary for a good vaccine that children, who were infected as newborns, were protected from subsequent severe disease." The World Health Organisation recommends that rotavirus vaccines be included in all national immunisation programmess. But while the Indian government provides subsidised vaccines for polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and Hepatitis B, it does not include rotavirus vaccines. The two other, internationally licensed, rotavirus vaccines are available in more than 40 countries, but they remain out of reach for many people in developing countries. Rotovac is cheaper than these existing vaccines, and, the researchers said, an effective alternative. It is an oral vaccine, and would be given to infants in a three-dose course - at six, 10, and 14 weeks of age.