Global deaths from infections that cause diarrhea and other intestinal illnesses fell from 3.7 million in 1990 to 1.3 million in 2023.
Babies may miss rotavirus vaccination for several reasons, but age requirements can cause premature babies to miss their chance.
Since rotavirus vaccines became available in 2006, severe illness has dropped significantly.
Pediatric flu deaths so far this season now total 149, most of them in unvaccinated children.
There have been an estimated 31 million illnesses, 380,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths from flu so far this season.
Many NICUs don't give rotavirus vaccines owing to a theoretical risk of transmission of vaccine strains, because vaccinated infants can shed live virus in their stools.
Researchers estimate vaccines for enteric pathogens could prevent up to 8 to 12 courses of antibiotics per 100 vaccinated children per year in low-resource countries.
Vaccine effectiveness against rotavirus infection was highest in children younger than 3 years and declined with increasing age.
Less than 1% of unvaccinated infants exposed to vaccinated babies contracted rotavirus.
A study today in the journal Family Practice reports that a rapid, multi-viral point-of-care test for respiratory infections was easy to use, acceptable to patients and clinicians, and appeared to influence clinical reasoning about antibiotics.
