SOME 876 Jamaican children have been enrolled in a trial programme of a new vaccine to protect babies against the rotavirus gastroenteritis.
The vaccine is being tested at the University of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Vaccines Infectious Diseases Centre and involves all infants born at the hospital who are 6-12 weeks old.
The rotavirus germ is the main cause of gastroenteritis in young children, an outbreak that the Ministry of Health reported has already killed eight children in the last two weeks.
The symptoms include severe vomiting and loose stools leading to death from severe dehydration.
According to the Ministry, surveillance reports have indicated an increase in gastroenteritis cases in St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Thomas.
The rotavirus germ causes seasonal diarrhoea in infants and young children and is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis in children three months to two years old.
Jamaica is one of 12 countries worldwide where the new vaccine is being tested and the trial has been fully endorsed by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Health and the UWI/UWHI Ethics Committee. Members of the research team include Dr. Kirk Thame a gastroenterologist and research nurses Hyacinth Smith, Lavern Malcolm and Jasmine Brown,
Participating babies are required to be well and should not have received the oral polio vaccine as an injectible vaccine given to them instead. The rotavirus vaccine is given in three doses at six week intervals. Fifty-two thousand children are involved in the trial worldwide.
The centre is also providing free immunisations against six other childhood diseases in a single injection. These include polio, meningitis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus and a whooping cough vaccine with an improved safety and effectiveness profile.
