Health Highlights: Oct. 26, 2008

"We saw marked declines of rotavirus in every age group, including those 2-to-6 years old for whom the vaccine isn't recommended," he added. "That's because a 2-month old who was vaccinated was less likely to infect the older brother or sister, or other children in day-care who weren't vaccinated."

Although CDC researchers also found large reductions in the number of children with rotavirus, they lacked data on children's ages that would have pointed to herd immunity, which is a community's resistance to illness, said Umesh Parasher, head of the CDC rotavirus epidemiology team.

Lieberman and Parasher presented their results at a joint meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Disease Society of America in Washington.

Lieberman looked at 132,000 rotavirus cases recorded in Quest's database from 2003 through July 2008. Positive tests declined 76 percent in the two most recent seasons compared with the 2003 through 2006 seasons, before Rotateq was cleared for sale,Bloombergreported.

Parasher looked at cases from 2000 through July 2008, using data from 33 laboratories that are part of a voluntary reporting system across the country. His study found a 67 percent decline in rotavirus cases in the most recent two years, compared with 2000 through 2006.

According to the CDC, 55,000 children are hospitalized annually because of illness and dehydration caused by rotavirus, and the disease kills more than 600,000 children worldwide each year.

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Tagless Label Ink May Cause Baby Rashes

About 400 babies have developed skin rashes from wearing certain knit items sold by Carter's Inc., a major baby and children's clothing retailer

According to theAssociated Press, about 400 incidents of rashes occurring on babies' backs have been reported, and officials suspect the cause may be the ink in the tagless labels on the garments.

The warning applies to the fall 2007 line of garments, such as baby knit body suits, shirts and pajamas, theAPreports, and it covers all 110 million items produced.

The rash incidents appear to come from the ink on the heat-transferred, tagless labels on the back of garments, according to an announcement on the Carter Web site. "It appears that a very small percentage of children can be allergic to one or more ingredients in the labels. The solid, rather than stenciled, background on the fall 2007 labels appears to have produced a more pronounced and noticeable reaction among those children who are most allergic to the ink," the announcement said.