Rotavirus is one of the main causes of acute gastroenteritis in infants and young children. Furthermore, rotavirus is the leading cause of hospitalization and death from acute gastroenteritis among infants and young children worldwide. Although death due to rotavirus is rare in industrialized regions such as Spain, the rotavirus disease burden and its economic impact is severe. This study aims ...

QUESTION As rotavirus vaccines enter the scheduled immunization programs in Canada, more and more of the children younger than 1 year of age in my practice are receiving rotavirus vaccines. Is there evidence that rotavirus vaccines are effective in preventing acute gastroenteritis complications such as dehydration and hospitalization? ANSWER To reduce the burden of illness of rotavirus-induce...

Genotyping circulating rotaviruses before and after introduction of rotavirus vaccine is useful for evaluating vaccine-associated changes in genotype distribution. We determined frequency of rotavirus genotypes among 61 rotavirus-positive children hospitalized in Israel during the 2005-06 rotavirus season. Accurate molecular epidemiologic data were recovered from affinity-concentrated rotavirus...

OBJECTIVES An effective vaccine is needed to protect against severe rotavirus disease, an important cause of gastroenteritis. Since there are no data on the incidence and antigenic diversity of rotavirus infection in Sierra Leone, we studied its epidemiology to enable an effective vaccine strategy to be designed. METHODS Children between the ages of 3 and 30 months presenting with gastroenter...

Vaccination can place selective pressures on viral populations, leading to changes in the distribution of strains as viruses evolve to escape immunity from the vaccine. Vaccine-driven strain replacement is a major concern after nationwide rotavirus vaccine introductions. However, the distribution of the predominant rotavirus genotypes varies from year to year in the absence of vaccination, maki...

With the ability to save millions of lives each year in both the developed and developing nations, vaccination against childhood infectious diseases is a priority area for global health. An essential aspect of the success of any vaccination program is the careful monitoring following implementation to ensure that the benefits of the program outweigh any risks to the recipients or the community....

Recently a new rotavirus vaccine was licensed in the United States and recommended for universal immunization of American children. The impact of the vaccine on a decrease in hospitalizations will take several years to assess and will be based on the availability of good baseline data on the disease. We used the largest US hospital discharge database available, the Healthcare Cost and Utilizati...

BACKGROUND In 2006, a new rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) was licensed in the US and recommended for routine immunization of all US infants. Because a previously licensed vaccine (Rotashield) was withdrawn from the US for safety concerns, identifying barriers to uptake of RotaTeq will help develop strategies to broaden vaccine coverage. METHODS We explored beliefs and attitudes of parents (n = 57...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the prevalence and circulation of rotavirus genotypes before and after the introduction of oral vaccine against human rotavirus, and to check for a possible change in the age of occurence of the infection by RV-A. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study conducted between 2002-2011, in the city of Juiz de Fora, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 1,144 diarrheal s...

INTRODUCTION We examined the cost-effectiveness of a rotavirus immunization program in Kyrgyzstan, a country eligible for vaccine funding from the GAVI Alliance. METHODS We estimated the burden of rotavirus disease and its economic consequences by using national and international data. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted from government and societal perspectives, along with a range of...