Next-generation rotavirus vaccines: important progress but work still to be done

Abstract

Rotavirus vaccines reduce the number of hospital admissions for diarrhoea caused by rotavirus in children younger than 5 years and are cost-effective when implemented within national immunisation programmes.1,2 Yet only 35% of eligible infants worldwide receive rotavirus vaccination, leaving 89 million children unprotected.3 Although funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has facilitated the introduction of rotavirus vaccines in low-income countries, countries with transitioning economies and middle-income countries have struggled to prioritise rotavirus vaccines for inclusion in infant vaccination programmes because of demand for other vaccines and increasing health-care costs.