Philippines to vaccinate 700,000 babies

[joebloggs]

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Monday the government would vaccinate 700,000 babies this year to protect them from a virus that causes diarrhoea, a killer disease ravaging poor communities.

While diarrhoea is a preventable disease, Aquino said health authorities had struggled to stop outbreaks from happening with many poor communities having no access to basic medical care.

“In the Philippines alone, thousands of children suffer from diarrhoea each year, with over 3,500 cases leading to death,” Aquino said.

“For this year, 700,000 infants from families listed in our national household targeting system will be vaccinated,” he said.

He said the vaccines would address infections from rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhoea in babies and children aged five and below.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), diarrhea is the third leading cause of child illness and the fourth leading cause of deaths among children less than five years in the Philippines.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/222079/...-700000-babies

[Doc Alan]

This is good news, but not before time. Rotavirus has been recognised for nearly 40 years as the most common cause of infectious gastroenteritis in infants and young children. Between 2006 – 2010, 27 countries introduced rotavirus vaccination into national immunisation programmes – reducing rotavirus disease in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Pneumonia and diarrhoea still account for nearly a third of all deaths in children under 5 years, over 2 million lives each year. About 90% of these are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Worldwide, diarrhoea due to rotavirus infection resulted in over 450,000 deaths in this age group. More than half of these occurred in 5 countries ( Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan ). WHO ( World Health Organization ) recommends use of rotavirus vaccines in all countries, especially where mortality is high. Last month’s report from UNICEF ( http://www.unicef.org/media/media_62592.html ) focuses on the huge potential to narrow the child survival gap from pneumonia and diarrhoea between the richest and the poorest countries.
There are two effective rotavirus vaccines – RotaTeq ( from USA ) and Rotarix ( from Belgium, licensed in UK, but not included in childhood immunisation schedule ).
Rotavirus is also one of the causes of adult diarrhoea ( the other viruses being hepatitis A and Norovirus/Norwalk virus ). In adults it may result from child-to-adult transmission, be endemic or epidemic, and it is one cause of " Travellers’ diarrhoea " ). There may be no symptoms, or nausea, malaise, headache, abdominal cramps, diarrhoea and fever. Symptoms are usually self-limiting, so “ supportive care “ is sufficient.

[lastlid]

[Steve.r]

Good news indeed