Rotavirus vaccines recommended

Rotavirus vaccination has been recommended for inclusion in all national immunisation programmes.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advocated the move, which aims to help prevent the spread of a virus that causes deaths around the world from diarrhoea.

Developing countries in Africa and Asia would be the main nations to benefit from this new policy.

Dr Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, welcomed the decision from WHO.

"This WHO recommendation clears the way for vaccines that will protect children in the developing world from one of the most deadly diseases they face," he said.

"We need to act now to deliver vaccines to children in Africa and Asia, where most rotavirus deaths occur."

A new approach is currently being developed to tackle both rotavirus diarrhoea and pneumonia, which are two of the biggest child mortality causes in the developing world.

More than 500,000 deaths each year are caused by diarrhoea.

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