How well does rotavirus vaccine work to prevent rotavirus disease?
Overall, approximately 72,000 healthy infants were studied worldwide in randomized placebo-controlled studies to look at both the safety of RotaTeq® and how well it works. The data showing how well RotaTeq® prevents rotavirus gastroenteritis comes from almost 7,000 of these infants from the United States and Finland. In these studies, RotaTeq® prevented 74 percent of all rotavirus gastroenteritis cases and 98 percent of the severe cases. In addition, RotaTeq™ reduced the need for hospitalization for gastroenteritis due to rotavirus by 96 percent. For full details, consult the MMWR article dated August 11, 2006 (Volume 55): Prevention of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Among Infants and Children.
Efficacy studies have demonstrated that rotavirus vaccine is 85%-98% protective against severe rotavirus disease and 74%-87% protective against rotavirus disease of any severity in the first year after vaccination. For full details, consult the MMWR article dated February 6, 2009 (Volume 58): Prevention of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Among Infants and Children.
