Rotavirus & Gastroenteritis: Thousands of Children Still Die From This Virus. Here’s All You Need to Know
Summary
Rotavirus is one of the leading causes of acute viral gastroenteritis (sometimes called the “stomach flu”) in children younger than five years, claiming over 500,000 lives annually and hospitalizing thousands more. The virus is so easily transmissible that only a tiny amount (just 100 out of 10 trillion viral particles) is needed to infect a healthy individual [3]. A second major step in the study of rotavirus was made in 1973 when Dr. Ruth Bishop, a noted Australian virologist, and her colleagues collected biopsies of intestinal tissue and fecal samples from children suffering from severe diarrhea [2,3]. Non-profit international health organizations, including WHO, PATH, and the CDC, have partnered with many governments throughout the world, as well as various research institutions, to make rotavirus vaccines accessible and affordable to people living in low- and middle-income countries [3]. The top factors leading to rotavirus-related deaths in these countries are as follows: In parts of the world with temperate climates, incidence of rotavirus is highest during the winter.
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