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Expensive Rotavirus Vaccine (Rotarix) Is Not Effective in Reducing Diarrhea in Bangladesh

Posted by djain385 on 24 Apr 2017 at 10:52 GMT

We congratulate Zaman and colleagues for their study of the effectiveness of oral rotavirus vaccine to reduce rotavirus infection in Bangladesh (1). They found that 164 ARD occurred in HRV villages (incidence rate 2.8 cases per 100 person years) and 206 in non-HRV villages (incidence 4.1/100 person years). The numbers needed to treat (NNT) was 77.

The rationale for introducing this expensive vaccine in resource poor countries is to reduce the overall burden of disease from diarrhea and diarrhea deaths. The authors report that there were more cases of children reporting with diarrhea among the vaccinated although the difference did not attain statistical significance (overall effectiveness against first presentation of diarrhea due to any etiology -2.2% (95%CI, -14.4%to 8.7%)).

We would request the authors to publish the data on non-rotavirus diarrhea in children in the first and in the second year of life, presenting for medical care to the three treatment centers, from the vaccinated cluster and the unvaccinated cluster. It may be useful to additionally look at severe diarrhea in the two groups.

Deepak Jain
drdeepakgrmc.88@gmail.com
Deepak Mittal
dr.dmittal08@gmail.com
St Stephens Hospital
Delhi, India.

No competing interests declared.
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