Rotavirus vaccination and intussusception

The development of vaccines has been a triumph of modern medicine. Vaccination has been an enormously powerful force for health improvement because of the large societal benefits provided with remarkably small risks. Some, however, have expressed worry that current vaccines are dangerous and represent a considerable threat to the health of the recipients. These concerns often do not include an analysis of the benefits as well as the risks of a given vaccine. Rotavirus infection is the most important cause of severe diarrheal disease in young children. In developing countries, rotavirus accounts for more than 500,000 childhood deaths annually; in developed countries, rotavirus is an infrequent cause of death but a common cause of hospitalizations and outpatient visits. Two second-generation rotavirus vaccine candidates (one composed of five human×animal reassortants [RV5] and the other a monovalent attenuated human rotavirus vaccine [RV1]) were were licensed in 2006 by the United States and other countries....