By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – State Public Health officials will continue to dispense more than 50 thousand doses of an early childhood vaccine against rotavirus. The vaccine is the subject of an F-D-A public health notification about intestinal problems in infants.
Winkler Sims, who heads the agency's immunization division, said the state began distributing the RotaTeq vaccine last July to more than 500 sites that participate in the Children's Vaccine Program.
Sims said the state will continue injecting children with RotaTeq because the Food and Drug Administration hasn't determined that it's unsafe.
The vaccine protects children against a rotavirus a leading cause of childhood diarrhea.
The F-D-A said there have been 28 reports of a serious intestinal condition called intussusception since the vaccine was approved last February. Its unknown whether the vaccine caused the problem.
No deaths were reported in the 28 new cases, but the F-D-A reported that 16 infants required intestinal surgery.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)