NIAC recommends children be given rotavirus vaccine

Experts recommend that children be given a routine vaccine to prevent the most common cause of gastroenteritis.

 

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland have written new guidelines regarding the vaccination. They suggest that giving kids aged between six and 32 weeks the rotavirus vaccine will help cut the risk of the condition that affects the stomach and intestine.

 

Children who contract the disease can suffer from severe vomiting and diarrhoea and some may even need to be admitted to hospital for extra fluids.

 

Chairperson of the NIAC, Dr. Kevin Connolly, says the vaccination has been proven to be very safe and can be given orally. “The vaccine has been in use for a number of years, particularly in the US and it has been shown to be a very effective vaccine. It reduces the virus infection by about 85%.”

 

The new guidelines also recommend offering the whooping cough vaccine to pregnant women at 27 and 36 weeks to protect them and their baby.

 

Connolly believes immunisations are the most successful health interventions, saying: “Immunisation programmes have been very successful, achieving many things, including the eradication of smallpox, the reduction of the global incidence of polio by 99% and reduced illness, disability and death from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, and meningitis.”