Rotavirus causes diarrhea in infants and children as well as
adults. In many cases while a baby was having severe diarrhea
and maybe associated vomiting and fever, their parents were also
ill, but not as severely. The stool of rotavirus was notorious
and could easily be identified by a "seasoned" pediatrician. No
one looked forward to the season of rotavirus diarrhea. With all
of that being said, we are on the cusp of rotavirus season, but
there is good news! The rotavirus vaccine was first licensed in
2006 and is routinely given to children at 2, 4 and 6 months of
age. The recent study in JAMA showed that the annual rate of
rotavirus associated diarrhea among children younger than 5
years of age dropped by almost 75% during the first 2 years
after routine vaccination started. In other words, the decline
in disease was proportional to the increased rates of vaccine
coverage. WOW, that is a true success story for the value of
vaccines. This translates into an estimated 65,000
hospitalizations that were prevent