I’m Nicholas Garlow.
Last revised: September 25, 2012
People have a lot in common worldwide, even when they don’t want to. At the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Roger Glass has been studying the most common cause of childhood diarrhea, rotavirus:
"It’s a huge problem. It’s a universal problem. All kids have it, rich or poor, black or white, Chinese or American or African. We all share the same common infection."
In the United States, rotavirus used to cause 50,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations, and dozens of deaths, each year – before vaccines were introduced. Dr. Glass says the hospitalization rate was cut 95 percent since then.
Studies show the vaccine is also effective in poor countries, but more global support is needed to reach every child.
Rotavirus disease is most common in infants and young children, but adults and older children can also become infected with rotavirus. Once a person has been exposed to rotavirus, it takes about 2 days for symptoms to appear.
Symptoms include
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Abdominal pain
Vomiting and watery diarrhea may last from 3 to 8 days in a child who is infected with rotavirus. Additional symptoms include loss of appetite and dehydration (loss of body fluids), which can be especially harmful for infants and young children.
Vaccinated and unvaccinated children may develop rotavirus disease more than once because there are many different types of rotavirus and because neither vaccine nor natural infection provides full immunity (protection) from future infections. Usually a person’s first infection with rotavirus causes the most severe symptoms.
