Hospital-based surveillance of rotavirus gastroenteritis in the era of limited vaccine uptake through the private sector

Abstract

To investigate possible impact of limited vaccine uptake by the private sector since 2007, a prospective observational study included all children <5 years hospitalized for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in a Tertiary Care Hospital between 09/2006 and 08/2010. Rotavirus (RV) antigen was detected in stools by a rapid immunochromatographic test and genotype analysis was performed on positive samples by RT-PCR. Compared to 2006-2008, the likelihood of rotavirus infection was significantly reduced among children hospitalized for AGE in 2008-2010 (OR 0.64; 95%CI: 0.49-0.84, p<0.001). This was mainly due to the reduction of RVGE cases in infants 0-11 months (p=0.035). Moreover, RVGE cases as well as the rate of RVGE/10,000 hospitalized children significantly decreased (p=0.009 and p=0.010 respectively). No children with rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) had received any vaccine dose. G4P [8] was the most common genotype (64/90). In conclusion, this study indicates that even low RV vaccination coverage may have significant effect.