Abstract
The impact of rotavirus (RV) vaccination in reducing severe rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) in outpatient settings was prospectively surveyed in three pediatric clinics in Shibata City. In children younger than 3 years of age, the occurrence of severe RVGE among all acute gastroenteritis (AGE) was found to be significantly lower in three seasons after introduction of RV vaccines, compared to that in 2011, before introduction of RV vaccines. The incidence rates of severe RVGE among children younger than 3 years of age were found to be reduced by 71.2%, 47.7%, and 81.1% for 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively, compared to that in 2011. These results suggest that the RV vaccination is effective for the prevention of severe RVGE in Japanese voluntary RV vaccination settings with estimated coverage rates of 32.5%, 40.5% and 47.1% for 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. It is expected that the reducing effect on severe RVGE would be persistently established by increasing the vaccine coverage rates.
Highlights
Rotavirus (RV) infection is the most common cause of severe diarrhea worldwide [1]
3778 acute gastroenteritis (AGE) episodes were observed in children younger than 5 years of age who lived in Shibata City at the three pediatric clinics during the study period, from February 14, 2011 to May 31, 2014
We analyzed 1473 AGE episodes in children younger than 3 years of age who visited a pediatric clinic during the epidemic months
Summary
Patients with rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) may develop severe dehydration, which can be life-threatening if the body fluid imbalances are not appropriately corrected. Two oral RV vaccines, RotarixTM (GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Rixensart, Belgium) and RotaTeqTM (Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA), for prevention of RVGE are approved in more than 100 countries and are incorporated into national immunization programs in more than 50 countries by April 2014 [4]. Since reviewing recent evidence on efficacy and safety of RV vaccines, the WHO has recommended to use RV vaccines in all national immunization programs [7]. RV vaccination had not been adopted into the national immunization program as of 2014, an estimation of 45% uptake with a wide range of variation throughout Japan was reported in 2013 [8]
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