Rotavirus — a contagious virus that can cause acute gastroenteritis — can land infants and young children in the hospital and even be deadly in some cases. According to a new study, immunization programs can help significantly reduce rotavirus-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
The study was led by Public Health Ontario and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Canada. The authors of the research examined eight years' worth of ICES data on hospitalization and ED visits for rotavirus infection and acute gastroenteritis, including more than 800,000 patient records. They compared the numbers from before and after the implementation of a rotavirus vaccine program in Ontario, under which babies received the rotavirus vaccine at two and four months of age.
After the rotavirus program was introduced, hospitalizations dropped among:
1. Babies less than one year of age by 79 percent
2. Toddlers 12 to 23 months by 73 percent
3. Kids 5 to 19 years of age by 75 percent
4. Adults (for acute gastroenteritis) by up to 38 percent
"This research clearly shows how effective a public vaccination program can be at protecting babies and kids from getting sick and alleviating burden on the healthcare system," said study co-author Shelley Deeks, MD. "This paper adds to the body of scientific evidence demonstrating the impressive impact of rotavirus vaccine programs."
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