Kathmandu, June 28 -- Over 620,000 children under one year of age will be protected against rotavirus, as the government is launching a rotavirus vaccine across the country from this week.

"We have supplied the vaccine to the seven provinces and all provinces have been supplying them to the districts," said Dr Jhalak Sharma, chief of the immunisation unit at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services. "All the preparations necessary to launch the vaccine have been over."

With the additional item, the number of vaccines on the regular immunisation list has reached 12. These are administered free of cost from state-run health facilities.

The first dose of the 1.5 ml oral vaccine will be administered in six weeks ...