WebMD Medical News Louise Chang, MD June 15, 2011 -- A vaccine
that prevents the most common cause of severe diarrhea and
dehydration in babies was associated with a potentially life-
threatening bowel disorder in a large study from Mexico and
Brazil, but the risk was small. Investigators with the CDC and
health agencies in Latin America concluded that between 1 in
51,000 and 1 in 68,000 vaccinated babies given the rotavirus
vaccine Rotarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, could be
expected to develop intussusception, a condition in which part
of the intestine slides into another part of the intestine, like
parts of a telescope. Another rotavirus vaccine, Wyeth Lab’s
RotaShield, was withdrawn from the market in the U.S. in 1999
less than a year after its introduction. At the time, the FDA
determined that the vaccine caused intussusception in 1 in
10,000 babies who got it. The new study confirms that the bowel
obstruction risk was not limited to the withdrawn vaccine, but
it also makes it clear that the benefi