Rotavirus: disease and vaccine update, 2007

Rotavirus infection is a ubiquitous illness, infecting the vast majority of children worldwide in the first 5 years of life. Rotavirus is one of the major causes of severe diarrhea in infants and young children throughout the developing and developed world. An estimated 500,000 deaths per year occur, with the burden of morbidity and mortality highest in the poorest nations. Two new oral, live, attenuated vaccines have recently shown efficacy and safety in clinical trials, and one of these, RotaTeq, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on February 3, 2006. RotaTeq is recommended for general use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Family Practice, and American Academy of Pediatrics.