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Assessing the impacts of the first year of rotavirus vaccination in the United Kingdom.


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Authors

Marlow, Robin 
Muir, Peter 
Vipond, Barry 
Lyttle, Mark 

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) added rotavirus (RV) vaccine (Rotarix GlaxoSmithKline) to the national vaccine schedule in July 2013. During the 2012-2014 rotavirus seasons, children presenting to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children Emergency Department with gastroenteritis symptoms had stool virology analysis (real-time PCR) and clinical outcome recorded. Nosocomial cases were identified as patients with non-gastroenteritis diagnosis testing positive for rotavirus > 48h after admission. In comparison to average pre-vaccine seasons, in the first year after vaccine introduction there were 48% fewer attendances diagnosed with gastroenteritis, 53% reduction in gastroenteritis admissions and a total saving of 330 bed-days occupancy. There was an overall reduction in number of rotavirus-positive stool samples with 94% reduction in children aged under one year and a 65% reduction in those too old to have been vaccinated. In the first year after the introduction of universal vaccination against rotavirus we observed a profound reduction in gastroenteritis presentations and admissions with a substantial possible herd effect seen in older children. Extrapolating these findings to the UK population we estimate secondary healthcare savings in the first year of ca £7.5 (€10.5) million. Ongoing surveillance will be required to determine the long-term impact of the RV immunisation programme.

Description

Keywords

epidemiology, rotavirus, rotavirus infection, sentinel surveillance, vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccines and immunisation, Bed Occupancy, Child, Child, Preschool, Diarrhea, Emergency Service, Hospital, Epidemiological Monitoring, Feces, Female, Gastroenteritis, Health Services Research, Hospitalization, Humans, Immunization Programs, Immunization Schedule, Incidence, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Rotavirus, Rotavirus Infections, Rotavirus Vaccines, United Kingdom, Vaccination, Young Adult

Journal Title

Euro Surveill

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1025-496X
1560-7917

Volume Title

20

Publisher

European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
Sponsorship
Thank you to all the doctors and nurses in Bristol Royal Hospital for Children’s Paediatric Emergency Department who helped with data and sample collection, Barrie Bishop who assisted with extracting coding data, and our research nurses Sarah Potter and Hannah Spires. The study was funded in part by an investigator-led grant from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. GlaxoSmithKline had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, nor in the writing of the report. The study was supported by the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Protection Research Unit in Evaluation of Interventions. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the National Institute for Health Research, the Department of Health or Public Health England.