http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010601/hl/diarrhea_vaccine_1.html

Trials of Rotavirus Vaccine to Start Next Year

CALCUTTA (Reuters) - A team of US and Indian scientists hopes to start clinical trials next year on a vaccine for rotavirus, one of the chief causes of diarrheal deaths in India, an official said on Friday.

“Clinical trials should hopefully start a year from now after we have received approvals of both US and Indian authorities,” Charles Gardner, science attache at the US embassy in India, told Reuters in Calcutta.

He said the “candidate vaccine,” a vaccine that is yet to be clinically tested, had been developed as part of the Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme that started in 1987 to develop vaccines for AIDS (news - web sites), tuberculosis, malaria and rotavirus.

A rotavirus vaccine was pulled from the market in the US in 1999 after it was linked to a rare type of bowel obstruction in babies.  However, researchers continue to look for a vaccine that is safe and effective for preventing the viral infection.

In the US, rotavirus is the number one cause of severe diarrhea in infants. Rotavirus causes about 50,000 diarrhea-related deaths in India every year, Gardner said.

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