First, there was Advair, the asthma drug that worsened the condition with prolonged use, then there was Avandia, the diabetes drug which has been shown to cause heart attacks. Now, there the GSK’s vaccine for the virus Rotarix has been found to contain traces of the pig disease called porcine circovirus.

According to a recent story by Reuters:

“The Switzerland has urged doctors to temporarily stop using GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix vaccine, regulators said on Tuesday, making it the latest country to caution against its use.”

U.S. authorities and the company said on Monday doctors should temporarily stop using the vaccine against a diarrhoea-causing virus called rotavirus because the vaccine is contaminated with the supposedly harmless pig virus DNA.

“There is no evidence at this time that this material poses a safety risk,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg told reporters in a conference call.

Rotarix was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs that is not yet known to cause disease in humans or animals, Hamburg said.

About 1 million children in the United States and about 30 million worldwide have gotten Rotarix vaccine, she said.

GlaxoSmithKline emphasized Monday that the pig virus is not known to cause illness in humans, saying “it is found in everyday meat products and is frequently eaten with no resulting disease or illness.”

However, the effects from directly injecting the foreign DNA into the bloodstream is still unknown.

Hamburg stressed that the suspension applies only to the United States. Public health officials in countries where the incidence of rotavirus is more severe may decide that the benefits of continuing to use the vaccine outweigh any concerns raised by the contamination, she said. “Such a decision would be very understandable,” she added.