Description

This is part of the ‘Health Academy Short Course’ series and provides clinicians with specific information related to the Rotarix vaccine.

This course is suitable for all Registered Healthcare Professionals, including Nurses, Pharmacists and GPs that administer this vaccine in practice.

This ‘Short Course’ will take approximately 1 hour to complete.

The course will cover key details of the vaccine and the diseases that it protects against.

What Rotarix is and what it is used for

Rotarix is a viral vaccine, containing live, attenuated human rotavirus, that helps to protect children,
from the age of 6 weeks, against gastro-enteritis (diarrhoea and vomiting) caused by rotavirus
infection.

How Rotarix works

Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea in infants and young children.
Rotavirus is easily spread from hand-to-mouth due to contact with stools from an infected person.
Most children with rotavirus diarrhoea recover on their own. However, some children become very ill
with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and life-threatening loss of fluids that requires hospitalisation.
When a person is given the vaccine, the immune system (the body’s natural defences) will make
antibodies against the most commonly occurring types of rotavirus. These antibodies protect against
disease caused by these types of rotavirus.

As with all vaccines, Rotarix may not completely protect all people who are vaccinated against the
rotavirus infections it is intended to prevent.