Troeger C, et al. - Researchers analyzed the extent of rotavirus infection among children younger than 5 years by country, and the number of deaths prevented because of the rotavirus vaccine. They found that rotavirus-associated mortality has clearly reduced over time, in part because of the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine. In the continued global reduction of rotavirus infection, prioritizing vaccine introduction and interventions to decrease diarrhea-associated morbidity and mortality was necessary.

Methods

• This report builds on discoveries from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, a cross-sectional study that measured diarrheal diseases and their etiologic agents.
• Main outcomes and measures analyzed were rotavirus-associated mortality and morbidity by country and year, and averted deaths attributable to the rotavirus vaccine by country.

Results

• The study results showed that rotavirus infection was responsible for an estimated 128,500 deaths (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 104,500-155,600) among children younger than 5 years throughout the world in 2016, with 104,733 deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (95% UI, 83,406-128,842).
• It was observed that rotavirus infection was responsible for more than 258 million episodes of diarrhea among children younger than 5 years in 2016 (95% UI, 193 million to 341 million), an incidence of 0.42 cases per child-year (95% UI, 0.30-0.53).
• Vaccine use is estimated to have averted more than 28,000 deaths (95% UI, 14,600-46,700) among children younger than 5 years.
• Expanded use of the rotavirus vaccine, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, could have prevented approximately 20% of all deaths attributable to diarrhea among children younger than 5 years.