Fda Lowers Patient Age for Hepatitis a Vaccine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co. on Monday said US regulators have approved its already marketed hepatitis A vaccine for use in children as young as 12 months old; the minimum age had been least two years old.

The Vaqta vaccine is used to prevent infection with hepatitis A, a virus that children sometimes pick up without developing symptoms and pass on to their siblings and other children.

Although the source of hepatitis A is not known in nearly half of all cases, it tends to be spread by oral contact with fecal matter and ingestion of contaminated food or water. There were an estimated 8,800 reported cases of hepatitis A in the United States during 2002, the drugmaker said.