Impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Côte d’Ivoire introduced rotavirus vaccine in March 2017. Rotavirus surveillance is conducted at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Yopougon in Abidjan, the capital city. Children <5 years of age are enrolled in rotavirus surveillance if admitted to the hospital with acute gastroenteritis. We used sentinel surveillance data from 2014 through mid-2019 to compare trends in rotavirus pediatric gastroenteritis hospitalizations before and after rotavirus vaccine introduction. We used Poisson regression to analyze changes in rotavirus prevalence, adjusting for calendar month and accounting for total monthly admissions; January 2014 – December 2016 was considered “pre-vaccine,” and January 2017 – June 2019 was considered “post-vaccine.” Age distribution and severity were compared between periods using the Mann-Whitney U test. Rotavirus-positive admissions declined 51% (95% CI: 28%-67%), from 31.5% pre-vaccine to 14.9% afterward. The median age of rotavirus-positive children increased from 7 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 5–11) in the pre-vaccine period to 11 months (IQR: 7–18, p = .005) in the post-vaccine period. The median severity score decreased from 11 to 9 ( p = .008) among all children, and from 12 pre- to 10.5 post-vaccine ( p = .35) among rotavirus-positive children. Our findings suggest that rotavirus vaccine introduction contributed to reduced rotavirus hospitalization in Abidjan and possibly more broadly.

Molecular Evolution of GII.P31/GII.4_Sydney_2012 Norovirus over a Decade in a Clinic in Japan

“…This GII.P31/GII.4_Sydney_2012 variant grew and predominated mostly after the introduction of RV vaccines. In fact, RV vaccines continued to reduce disease severity in RV illness [14][15][16][17] but failed to regulate the diversity in RV genotypes [18][19][20][21][22] and the increasing trends of other diarrheal viruses including NoV [23]. However, we need to investigate carefully how viral gastroenteritis will change after the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of RV vaccination.…”

Immunogenicity and safety of a new hexavalent rotavirus vaccine in Chinese infants: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical trial

“…Rotavirus infection is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide in children under 5 y of age and causes dehydration of varying degrees. 1 , 2 The WHO broadened its recommendation for rotavirus vaccination use in 2009 to cover all nations, with a focus on those with high rates of death from diarrhea. 3 The introduction of oral rotavirus vaccines into national immunization programs has led to substantial reductions in rotavirus and all-cause acute gastroenteritis, hospital admissions and mortality among children younger than 5 y.…”