Rotavac, India’s answer to high cost Rotavirus Vaccine

India has come up with a medical breakthrough that will save many children and perhaps in the world too. Rotavac is the world’s cheapest vaccine to fight diarrhea in children triggered by rotavirus.  The high cost of the existing vaccine made the vaccine un-affordable for many. It won’t be the case anymore. The vaccination campaign launched on March 26 will be administered to children as a part of government program launched in Odisha. It will be followed by Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. It will be launched in other states in the next phase. Infants between the age of six and 10 weeks will be given this vaccine.

This vaccination was much required in India because every year Diarrhea takes the lives of over three lakh children  and according to the World Health Organization, around  one lakh of this deaths are caused due to rotavirus infection. The two other similar kind of vaccinations that are available in the country are Swiss pharmaceutical Merck’s Rotateq and Rotarix, made by British GlaxoSmithKline which is available at a price of Rs 2,000 for a full course, which is out of reach for many. But  Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Rotovac is going to be priced Rs 60 per dose. After trials for decades, Rotovac has proved to be successful and it is expected to receive WHO’s international approval in 2017, which will allow other developing countries import this vaccination from India.