"Our yearlong, prospective study done in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that benefits of vaccinating NICU patients against rotavirus outweigh risks," Kathleen Gibbs, lead neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says in a press release.
Gibbs and her team are set to present their findings Saturday at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Toronto.
Their study looked at 3,448 weekly stool samples from 774 patients in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) between January 2021 and January 2022, and found that 99.3% of non-vaccinated patients didn't test positive for rotavirus after 14 days.
"Our yearlong, prospective study done in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that benefits of vaccinating NICU patients against rotavirus outweigh risks," Gibbs says.
"Inpatient vaccination allows protection of a vulnerable population against a common, preventable cause of severe diarrheal illness."
preterm infants are at higher risk of the highly contagious virus, yet few receive the vaccine in hospital settings, per the press release.
The rotavirus vaccine contains a weakened form of the virus to produce a stronger immune response.
The study found that 99.3% of non-vaccinated patients exposed to vaccinated patients did not test
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