INFECTION with a rotavirus, the commonest cause of gastro-enteritis in
children, may lead to childhood diabetes. Although this suggests that rotavirus
vaccines could help prevent diabetes, it also raises fears that the vaccines
themselves could trigger the disease.
Australian researchers discovered the link after a six-year study of 54
babies. “It’s the most important piece of work I’ve heard of in a long time,”
says diabetes researcher Glenys Thomson at the University of Berkeley in
California. “The evidence so far is looking very good.”
Unlike type II diabetes
(see p 10), which usually affects people in middle
age, type I…
