Since the partnership was launched on October 27 of 2006, Merck has provided nearly 1 million free doses of ROTATEQ^® (rotavirus vaccine, live, oral pentavalent) to Nicaragua. Starting in March 2007, an estimated 27,720 doses of ROTATEQ have been administered every month; since vaccine introduction in October, 2006,  to date, more than 769,120 doses have been administered through the national immunization program and the country has achieved rates of rotavirus vaccination that are among the highest in the world. The Ministry of Health reports that approximately 81 percent of eligible infants in Nicaragua were vaccinated with ROTATEQ in 2008.

The Merck effort has allowed Nicaragua  to establish rapidly a national rotavirus vaccination program to help protect infants from this potentially serious disease. In the past, hospitals in Nicaragua were overwhelmed every winter with infants and children suffering from severe diarrhea and dehydration, much of which was caused by rotavirus gastroenteritis. Since vaccine introduction in 2006, winter hospitalizations for diarrhea and dehydration have been considerably lower.

The demonstration project has also shown that from a programmatic perspective, ROTATEQ has been easy to implement: The fully liquid vaccine is easy to administer and there is now high awareness and demand for the vaccine.

	2008*	2007	2006
Total doses of vaccine delivered as 1st, 2nd or 3rd dose, est.	329,560	291,797	20,325
Total doses of vaccine delivered as 3rd dose (fully vaccinated child), est.	106,700	87,611	0
Vaccine coverage (% receiving 3rd dose of ROTATEQ among Nicaraguan infants), est.	81%	80%	0

^*as of 12/31/2008

Impact

This program is adding to the evidence base supporting introduction of routine rotavirus vaccination in resource-poor countries, and has helped to inform access decisions in other countries. Already, two and a half years since the launch of this unique demonstration project, a number of countries have expressed interest in introducing ROTATEQ. In 2005, the World Health Organization moved to recommend rotavirus vaccination as one of the core list of childhood immunizations. In late 2006, the GAVI Alliance committed to provide funding for the introduction of rotavirus vaccines in eligible countries around the world. In 2009, the WHO recommended the inclusion of rotavirus vaccination of infants into all national immunization programs.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

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