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Prior to the development of current oral rotavirus vaccines, rotavirus was the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. It is still a major cause of severe gastroenteritis in the developing world, and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of death associated with rotavirus infection. Barriers to the use of existing oral rotavirus vaccines in the developing world are the high cost of the vaccines and the difficulty of maintaining the cold chain from production to vaccination.
Now, international investigators have conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, phase III trial of a pentavalent live oral rotavirus vaccine. The bovine-human reassortant vaccine contains rotavirus serotypes G1–G4 and G9 and …