[Vaccine prevention of Rotavirus infection]

Two new life attenuated vaccines have been granted this year a marketing authorization by European and American regulatory agencies. One, Rotarix, is a monovalent vaccine derived from a human strain and takes advantage of the cross-reactivity between human Rotavirus strains. The other, RotaTeq, is a pentavalent human-bovine reassortant. These 2 vaccines have been shown to have an excellent safety profile in clinical trials and are highly effective in protecting infants against severe manifestations of Rotavirus gastroenteritis. In industrialized countries, the incidence of Rotavirus infection has not been reduced by the improvement of economic and sanitary conditions and are still associated with severe morbidity and an important economic impact. When they are administered at the same time as DTPa-VHB-IPV/Hib and Pn7V vaccines, they do not interfere with the immune response against the 7 valencies included in these vaccines. The widespread use of these vaccines should allow to control Rotavirus infections in the European context.