Save your child from Rotavirus death sentence

The government, through the Ministry of Health, has announced free rotavirus immunization for children at six weeks and a second dose at 10 weeks.

All public health facilities will be provided with this vital vaccine which can prevent thousands of deaths.

Since the vaccine is free, there are concerns that some parents may not take it seriously.

But here is why taking your child for the oral drops may be the best decision you ever make.

World Health Organization passed recommendations that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programmes to provide protection against a virus that claims more than 600,000 lives and is responsible for 2 million hospitalizations every year among children.

Further, data by WHO indicates that more than 85 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries; mainly in Africa.

According to Dr Doris Kinuthia, a pediatrician at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, the rotavirus vaccine has to be given before a child is six months. This, she says, is around the same time [research has concluded] they are highly susceptible to getting stomach infections from the bug.

“Six weeks and 10 weeks are significant timelines because they coincide with the national vaccination schedule, which provides other types of vaccinations to children,” she says.

“The vaccine confers immunity against the virus and protects against future infections. Infection by rotavirus can be severe, causing bloody diarrhoea which can easily cause death.”

What the medical profession has observed, quips Doris, is that mothers tend to care more about the health of their children within the first one year of lactation.

From the second year, the daily demands of work get most parents preoccupied, making children even more vulnerable to infections and diseases.

Rotavirus affects the bowels. Prior to the availability of a vaccine, in 2006, nearly all children became infected by their third birthday.

Highly contagious

An online paper authored by American doctor, Melissa Stöppler, points out that babies and toddlers between the ages of 6 and 24 months are at a greater risk of developing severe ailments from rotavirus infection.

The virus affects the alimentary canal and is highly contagious through water, liquids and foods; consumables that can find their way into a baby’s mouth. Adults too sometimes become infected, though they usually suffer mild symptoms; at which time they become a health risk to unimmunized children.

According to Melissa, the primary mode of transmission of rotavirus, which lives and remains latent in the environment, is the passage of the virus from the stool of one child to the mouth of another.

Children can transmit the virus when they forget to wash their hands before eating or after using the toilet.

Touching a surface that has been contaminated with rotavirus and then touching the mouth area can also lead to infection.

Any person who has spent some time with a baby will tell you that they put anything and everything in their mouths.

Don’t let your child be a statistic. Symptoms of rotavirus infection are primarily severe diarrhoea and vomiting.