Rotarix Vaccine Contaminates Millions with Pig Viruses

On Monday, March 22, 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked pediatricians and other physicians to “temporarily” suspend administering GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine, Rotarix. This vaccine is one of two licensed in the United States (U.S.) that target rotavirus infections. The other vaccine, RotaTeq, is manufactured by Merck & Co., Inc.

Here we must mention that GlaxoSmithKline and Merck produce the only two human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines—Gardasil and Cervarix; and the two most widely administered Hepatitis B vaccines—Recombivax and Engerix-B, respectively. Some state governments are proposing laws to have these vaccines administered to children without the consent of their parents. We should keep this in mind as we evaluate the details surrounding the Rotarix contamination crisis.

Approximately one million children in the U.S. and about 30 million worldwide have received the Rotarix vaccine since it was FDA-approved in 2008. Nearly 70 million doses have been distributed. How will the remaining dosages be handled? Will they be discarded or will the suspension be lifted for the sake of profits. We must keep our eyes fixed on this issue.

The vaccine was contaminated with a substantial amount of DNA from the porcine circovirus 1, a virus known to infect pigs. An academic research team, using a novel technique to detect viruses in a range of vaccines, discovered the contamination. The research team has not been named, but it immediately alerted GlaxoSmithKline and the FDA. GlaxoSmithKline confirmed that DNA from the porcine circovirus was present in both the “cell bank” and the “seed” from which the Rotarix vaccine is derived. This also confirmed that the contamination occurred in the early stages of the vaccine development process.

What does this mean? It means that everyone who was administered Rotarix since 2008 is infected with the pig virus, porcine circovirus. How should we handle this knowledge? What does this mean to the health of those vaccinated? How did a pig virus get in the vaccine? How do people who try to avoid swine, such as Muslims and Jews, handle this information—which is, that they or their children were infected with a pig virus?

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