foodconsumer.org: Tainted rotavirus vaccine safe to use, FDA says

Tainted rotavirus vaccine safe to use, FDA says
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admin on 05/15/2010 14:14:00
 
The pig virus found in Rotavirus vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline does not pose
any health risk, media reports cited U.S. health regulators as ruling on Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that there is no evidence
that the contamination caused any harm and rotavirus vaccines made by both Glaxo
and Merck are safe to use.
DNA fragments from procine circovirus have been found in ratovirus vaccines by
both companies, Reuters reported. Early reports said that the vaccine by Merck
is not contaminated.
Some strains of the pig virus may cause a wasting syndrome in young piglets, but
it is unknown whether they may cause health problems in humans.
Rotavirus, the leading cause of severe acute diarrhea in children aged younger
than 5 years, caused an estimated 20 to 60 deaths in the United States each
years, according to a U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention report.
The rate of death from this virus is extremely low, considering more than 0.6
percent of infants can not live beyond the first six months in the United
States.
A report released in 2008 from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics says
the U.S. infant mortality rate was 6.78 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in
2004.
The CDC says in another report that before rotavirus vaccine was introduced in
2006, the virus caused 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations, 205,000 to 272,000
emergency department visits, and 410,000 outpatient visits annually.
David Liu