Rotavirus
Vaccine
Loses
US Federal
Backing
Reuters
news service reported in the October 25, 1999 issue of USA Today that a US
federal health panel has withdrawn its recommendation that infants be
vaccinated with the rotavirus vaccine.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said that when it
comes to the rotavirus they, “no longer recommends immunization of
infants.”
The
concern is that there is an incidence of an intestinal problem,
intussusception, a type of bowel obstruction that can occur within two
weeks of immunization. The
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey found a significantly higher
relationship between these problems and children who were immunized with
the rotavirus. Reportedly
there were 102 cases of intussusception in vaccinated children when only
about a dozen cases were expected.
John
Livengood, director of epidemiology and surveillance in the National
Immunizations Program of the CDC commented, “We
felt that the risk of an adverse reaction to the vaccine, in the case
intussusception, outweighed the potential benefit the parents would likely
see in their individual child.”
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