Ever since routine immunization against rotavirus launched in 2006, the U.S. has seen a marked drop in the number of infants and young children hospitalized with gastroenteritis, a recent study in JAMA found.
Before the rotavirus vaccination campaign started, the rate of hospitalizations for gastroenteritis for children younger than 5 was 16 cases per 10,000 children.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who tracked data from 26 states on hospitalizations for gastroenteritis among children younger than 5 years old found a big drop-off between 2008 and 2012 of such hospitalizations, according to a HealthDay report summarizing the study.
In fact, they found that after vaccinations started, hospitalization rates fell by 70 percent in 2008, 63 percent in 2009 and 94 percent in 2012.
According to the CDC, the most common mode of rotavirus transmission is the fecal-oral route. About 1 out of 70 children with a rotavirus infection will require hospitalization for intravenous fluids. In the U.S., there are two rotavirus vaccines available: RotaTeq and Rotarix.