MORE than half a million children a year in developing countries could be saved by new vaccines against rotavirus. Mexico will start using the first of the vaccines in 2005.
Rotavirus infects just about every child in the world by the time they are five years old. It is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among children. But while only a handful of children die in rich countries, in poor countries the disease is often fatal.
The first rotavirus vaccine, called RotaShield, was withdrawn in October 1999 after being on the US market for only nine months, because it…
