New Delhi, December 9 (IANS). Research suggests that rotavirus vaccine may be safe to give to babies while they are in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and suggests it may be routinely given to babies admitted to the NICU. can be given to.
A study from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) showed that infection with the rotavirus vaccine strain in the NICU is rare. But, the team said that applying rotavirus vaccine will benefit the immune system. These research findings can serve as the basis for changes in clinical practice.
Rotavirus is a virus that infects the lining of the intestines and is usually characterized by symptoms such as high fever, persistent and severe vomiting and diarrhea. It remains the most common cause of diarrhea in infants and young children. It kills about half a million children worldwide.
Typically, the first dose of rotavirus vaccine is given to newborns at two months of age.
However, rotavirus vaccines are not given to hospitalized patients in many NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) because the virus strains present in the vaccine can spread to other patients.
Withholding vaccinations until patients are discharged from the NICU often results in longer hospitalizations for infants, who are most vulnerable to severe rotavirus disease due to underlying health conditions. Previous retrospective studies found a very low risk of horizontal transmission in NICU settings.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, examined 1,238 infants who were given 226 doses of the RotaTaq vaccine.
A total of 3,448 stool samples were analyzed, of which 2,252 samples were from 686 patients who were not vaccinated. Most of these unvaccinated patients never tested positive for the rotavirus vaccine strain.
The remaining five patients tested positive for the rotavirus vaccine strain. No symptoms of gastroenteritis were found in those cases.
Kathleen A., a neonatologist in CHOP’s Department of Neonatology. “These findings add to existing safety data and suggest that the known benefits of NICU administration of rotavirus vaccine outweigh the reduced risks of vaccine-strain transmission,” Gibbs said.
–IANS
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