Vaccine Campaign Will Target Deadly Childhood Diarrhea

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Every year, more than one million children under the age of five die as a result of diarrhoea. It is the second-biggest killer in this age group, after pneumonia, and 40% of diarrhoea deaths are caused by rotavirus.

That horrific toll could soon fall, thanks to the first major roll-out of rotavirus vaccines in Africa, where half of rotavirus deaths occur. The programme was unveiled this week by the GAVI Alliance -- formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation -- based in Geneva, Switzerland. The group hopes to immunize 50 million children against rotavirus in 40 of the world's poorest countries by 2015. Although rotavirus gastro­enteritis is common worldwide, it kills very few children in richer countries, where hospitalization and intravenous rehydration are readily available, and where vaccination is becoming more common.

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