Merck & Co's Rotateq enters US vacc program

US drug major Merck & Co says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has unanimously voted to recommend that all infants, starting at six to 12 weeks of age, be vaccinated with Rotateq (rotavirus vaccine, live, oral, pentavalent) to prevent rotavirus gastroenteritis, a leading cause of severe dehydrating diarrhea in infants and young children.

The ACIP recommended that the oral, ready-to-use, three-dose vaccine be given during the current routine well-baby visits at two, four and six months of age. On February 3, the Food and Drug Administration approved the product, now the only vaccine available in the USA to prevent this serious and unpredictable disease, for use in infants between the ages of six to 32 weeks.

Merck noted that, by the time children in the USA are five years old, approximately one out of every 17 will visit the emergency room, and one out of every 65 will be hospitalized for rotavirus gastroenteritis.