THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270516
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 78 lines
By age three, nearly every child in the world will have a bout of illness caused by rotavirus, a wheel-shaped virus that can cause severe vomiting, diarrhea and high fever.
More than 100,000 children in the United States - 300 in South Hampton Roads - are hospitalized each year because of the dangerous dehydration the virus causes. It is rarely fatal in this country, but about 1 million children worldwide die from it each year.
Last week, a treatment to prevent the highly contagious illness moved closer to reality when Finnish scientists announced the success of the world's largest clinical trial of a rotavirus vaccine. The study, involving 2,398 children, showed that the vaccine virtually eliminated the serious forms of the disease.
Such a vaccine, says Norfolk doctor David O. Matson, who has participated in its development, will dramatically improve the health of children throughout the world.
``This is good news for children,'' said Matson, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Center for Pediatric Research. ``This vaccine will prevent 80,000 to 90,000 hospitalizations and probably 500,000 office visits to physicians each year in the United States.''
The center, a joint project of Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and Eastern Virginia Medical School, was one of 24 sites in this country that tested the vaccine. Matson, a national expert on the rotavirus, has also conducted research proving that breast-feeding protects against the virus.
Last week's announcement before the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting in New Orleans means the vaccine's manufacturer, drug company Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, can submit it to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year. Approval is expected within two years, Matson said.
The vaccine would be given by mouth at ages 2, 4 and 6 months. The only side effect, Matson said, is a low fever - less than 102 degrees - that about 6 percent of children develop within four days of immunization.
Unlike most childhood vaccines, however, the rotavirus vaccine is not totally effective. While it prevents 80 to 90 percent of the serious illnesses, it only blocks about half of the infections that would normally occur.
That's because the infection occurs on the wall of the intestine, a place where the body does not maintain high levels of the protective factors needed to block the virus. It can take the body one to three days to mobilize these factors, such as antibodies, to fight the virus.
Antibodies are proteins in the blood created when a person is exposed to a virus, providing immunity against future exposure to that virus. Vaccines work by giving a person a small amount of the virus, which triggers the antibody response without actually provoking the illness.
Even without 100 percent effectiveness against the illness, Matson said, children should still be immunized against rotavirus because of the highly effective protection the vaccine provides against the more serious forms of the disease.
The Finnish study, for instance, showed that of about 1,200 babies vaccinated, none were hospitalized during two winter seasons - the time of year children typically get the disease. And only eight cases in the vaccinated children were considered severe.
Future generations of the vaccine may be more effective, Matson said. He and the center's director, Dr. Larry K. Pickering, have developed a method to test the amount of antibodies needed to protect against the illness.
Understanding the relationship between antibodies in the blood and the level of protection they provide against the virus will make testing the next generation of vaccines much easier, Matson said.
Any vaccine would be just fine with Chesapeake mother Tonya McGuire. McGuire's 20-month-old son Shay was hospitalized with rotavirus diarrhea last spring.
``It was a terrible experience,'' she said. Within less than 48 hours, Shay went from an active little boy to a weak, drawn child, severely dehydrated from throwing up every five minutes and constant diarrhea.
She'd try the vaccine, McGuire said, even if it didn't have a perfect record. ``Anything that keeps him from going through that again.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN\ The
Virginian-Pilot
Dr. David O. Matson of Norfolk.
KEYWORDS: ROTAVIRUS VACCINE by CNB