Epidemiological trends for hospital admissions for acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in Belgium following the introduction of routine rotavirus vaccination and the subsequent switch from lyophilized to liquid formulation of Rotarix™

Abstract

This study describes epidemiological trends for acute rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) in Belgium in children aged ⩽5 years during the period June 2007 to May 2014 after the introduction of routine rotavirus (RV) vaccination. This period encompassed the switch from lyophilized to the liquid formulation of Rotarix™ (GlaxoSmithKline, Belgium) in August 2011. Uptake of RV vaccine remained consistently high throughout the study period with Rotarix the brand most often used. RV was present in 9% (1139/12 511) of hospitalized cases with acute gastroenteritis included in the study. Epidemiological trends for hospital admissions for RVGE remained consistent throughout the study period, with no evidence of any change associated with the switch from lyophilized to liquid formulation of Rotarix. This suggests both formulations perform similarly, with the liquid formulation not inferior regarding ability to reduce hospital admissions for acute RVGE in children aged ⩽5 years. A strong seasonal effect was observed with most RVGE occurring in the winter months but with some variability in intensity, with highest incidence found in those aged 6-24 months. The main observation was the decreased number of hospital admissions for RVGE in Belgium that occurred during winter 2013/2014.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01435967.

Keywords: Acute; Belgium; Rotarix™ vaccination; epidemiological; gastroenteritis; rotavirus; trend.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Number of positive tests and proportion (with 95% confidence intervals) testing positive for rotavirus stratified by age group (months).

Fig. 2.

Number of rotavirus laboratory tests performed and number of samples testing positive stratified by calendar month across the entire study period

Fig. 3.

Number and proportion of samples testing positive for rotavirus by individual rotavirus season during the study period (with 95% confidence intervals). The dark and light grey bars reflect use of the lyophilized and liquid formulations of Rotarix, respectively. The white bar reflects the season in which the switch from lyophilized to the liquid formulation occurred.

Fig. 4.

Rotavirus vaccine uptake in Belgium (% of newborns vaccinated) over time stratified by vaccine brand (Intercontinental Marketing Services health sales data). * Denotes those years where data were not used for all the 12 months (reflecting the study period which began in September 2006 and concluded in May 2014).