Rotavirus in Infants?

Question

My son just got over a what I'm pretty sure was a case of rotavirus. The whole small grade fever for 2 days, vomiting up his formula, extremely watery diarrhea for about 6-7 days. Mind you with the formula he also has mild reflux. He goes to daycare, but I was wondering other than take him out of daycare what can I do to help prevent it? and what causes it? besides the fact that it's contagious and can be easily spread from one child to the next.

Answer 1

You're right, it does sound like rotavirus, however to be sure, your son would've needed a stool study for rotavirus to be sure.

There is a vaccine for rotavirus available called Rotateq. It protects a child from severe gastroenteritis (meaning it reduces the severity because it doesn't prevent all cases) and it can prevent future causes altogether. The vaccine is not 100% protective, but has been shown to reduce ER visits, hospitalizations, and severity of illness. I don't know how old your son is, but it can be given starting at 2 months.

The vaccine is delivered in 3 doses; by the boook it's: 7, 14 and 42 days, but is usually given at 2 months intervals. It's not usually recommended for normal healthy developing kids since most can just get over it themselves after after a few days of badness. It's expensive, too. Many insurances are paying for it, but if not, then it's about $60-$80 per dose = ($180-$240). This may be a small price to pay if it prevents a hospitalization from dehydration.

Rotavirus is caused by an extremely contagious virus that spread through "fecal-oral transmission". Yep, an infected kid's poo somehow enters the mouth of an unaffected kid. This can easily be from the surface of a toilet, a toy, or anything. The virus is quite robust and can live outside the body for a long time. Lower levels of virus have been detected in respiratory secretions, but this is not the main transmission of disease.

One of the necessary evils of daycare is exposure to many infectious diseases, but almost all of them are self-limited and don't last too long. If while having rotavirus he was able to stay at home with you, and you made sure he stayed hydrated, I wouldn't think it's mandatory that you get the vaccine. I assume he's an otherwise healthy kid. But if you're concerned enough about catching rotavirus again, and he's "higher-risk" in that he goes to daycare, it's not unreasonable to go to his doc for the vaccine.

Company info on the vaccine:
http://www.rotateq.com/

FDA datasheet:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/label/rotamer020306LB.pdf