Children aged under four months will be vaccinated against rotavirus from next year, in an attempt to halve the number of vomiting and diarrhoea cases, the Department of Health (DH) has announced.

The £25 million programme will see children receive two doses of the Rotarix vaccine from September next year, after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation concluded it was a cost-effective way of protecting children against the virus.

Rotavirus causes about 140,000 cases of diarrhoea in children aged under five years annually, with nearly one in 10 requiring hospitalisation, according to the DH. The vaccine is expected to save the NHS £20m by halving the number of vomiting and diarrhoea cases and cutting hospital stays by nearly 70 per cent.

"Many people think of diarrhoea as something that all children get and that you just have to put up with it," said DH director of immunisation Professor David Salisbury. "But there is a way to protect children from this."