The roll out of a rotavirus vaccine was yesterday launched in Musanze District.This vaccine is administered to children preferably below the age of one to prevent diarrhoea. There are over 400,000 doses of the vaccine currently in the country worth approximately $7million, and are expected to benefit over 100,000 children.Rwanda is using this vaccine for the first time and it’s expected to significantly reduce the mortality rate of children who die as a result of diarrhoea.Dr Uzziel Ndagijimana, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, , said many children’s lives will be saved by the vaccine.“We have decided to introduce this vaccine under the routine immunisation programme, and based on the previous vaccines, we believe this one will be smoothly rolled out across the country,” he said.Diarrhoea accounts for 19 percent of all deaths of children under the age of five.Maurice Gatera, the head of vaccine preventable diseases in the Ministry of Health, said the vaccine is likely to lower the mortality rate of children under five by 80 per cent.According to the 2008 data review of health management information system (HMIS), diarrhoea is the third leading cause of mortality after pneumonia and neonatal infections.
