Lifesavers · No. 19

The rotavirus vaccine

The rotavirus vaccine, introduced in 2006, prevents the severe diarrhoea that once killed hundreds of thousands of children a year, an estimated 28,900 of them in 2016 alone.

28,900 lives — child deaths from diarrhoea prevented by rotavirus vaccines in a single year, 2016

A single-year estimate; the cumulative total across all years since 2006 is larger, and rises further as coverage grows.

Credited to: An early rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn in 1999 over a safety signal; the safe, effective vaccines now in use were licensed in 2006, building on the 1973 discovery of rotavirus by Ruth Bishop and colleagues.
When: 2006

How it saves lives

Rotavirus spreads easily and attacks the gut, causing diarrhoea and vomiting severe enough to dehydrate a small child to death within days. It is so contagious that clean water and hygiene alone do not stop it, which is why nearly every child caught it before vaccines. The oral vaccine primes a baby's immune system so that the first real infection is mild instead of life-threatening. It works hand in hand with oral rehydration, which treats the dehydration once it starts.

The story

For a long time rotavirus was strangely overlooked, because it kills through plain dehydration rather than anything exotic, and it does its worst in the poorest places. Yet before vaccines it put millions of children in hospital and killed hundreds of thousands every year. Safe vaccines arrived in 2006, and where they reached babies the severe cases fell away. One estimate credited them with preventing about 28,900 child deaths in 2016 alone, a figure that keeps climbing as more countries add the vaccine to their schedules.

From the record

According to a study published in 2018, the use of rotavirus vaccines prevented approximately 28,900 child deaths globally in 2016.

Our World in Data Rotavirus vaccine, 2019

Asked often

How many lives has the rotavirus vaccine saved?

Rotavirus vaccines prevented an estimated 28,900 child deaths in 2016 alone, according to a study summarised by Our World in Data. The cumulative total since the vaccine's 2006 introduction is larger and continues to grow as coverage expands.

What does the rotavirus vaccine protect against?

It protects against rotavirus, a highly contagious virus that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting in young children. Before the vaccine, almost every child was infected by the age of five, and dehydration from rotavirus was a leading cause of child death.

How it saves lives

The story

Asked often

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