By Kim Stagliano

As President Obama looks at revamping out of control health care costs in The United States, this study calls into question the cost of RotaTeq, Dr. Paul Offit's rotavirus vaccine (from Merck) which is on the AAP schedule as a routine vaccination.

Pediatrics. 2007 Apr;119(4):684-97.  Links
Comment in:
Evid Based Med. 2007 Oct;12(5):153.

Cost-effectiveness and potential impact of rotavirus vaccination in the United States.

Widdowson MA, Meltzer MI, Zhang X, Bresee JS, Parashar UD, Glass RI.
Respiratory and Enteric Virus Branch, Mailstop A34, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. mwiddowson@cdc.gov

OBJECTIVE: In February 2006, a safe, efficacious, orally administered pentavalent human-bovine reassortant rotavirus vaccine was licensed and recommended for routine immunization of all children in the United States. We assessed the health and economic impacts of a national rotavirus immunization program in the United States.