Essential Medicines News

Latin American countries have quickly adopted the rotavirus vaccine and are making it part of their childhood vaccination programs. Communications strategies played a key role in increasing the speed of vaccine adoption through bringing together scientists, public health officials, policymakers, and the media to raise awareness about rotavirus. At the 6th International Symposium on Rotavirus in 2004, data on the safety and efficacy of new rotavirus vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. as well as data on the health and economic impacts of rotavirus in specific countries was provided. Publicizing information on the significant impact of rotavirus as well as the cost-effectiveness of the vaccines increased political will and spurred health ministries of Latin American countries to consider adopting the vaccines.

“The cost-effectiveness data in particular gave us a lot of power in making the case for adopting the rotavirus vaccine,” said Jarbas Barbosa da Silva, Executive Secretary for the Ministry of Health [of Brazil], which bought 8 million doses of vaccine this year.