Successive articles in the New England Journal of Medicine (Shabir A Madhi and colleagues. N Engl J Med 2010;362:289–98; Vesta Richardson and colleagues. Ibid:299–305; see also editorial; ibid:358–60) have reported on the efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in South Africa and Malawi and in Mexico.

The African trial of Rotarix, an attenuated human rotavirus vaccine containing a G1P[8] strain included 3166 infants in South Africa and 1773 in Malawi. Randomisation was to three options with administration at ages 6, 10 and 14 weeks: two doses of vaccine and one of placebo, three doses …