Hospital-based surveillance of rotavirus gastroenteritis in the era of limited vaccine uptake through the private sector.

To investigate possible impact of limited vaccine uptake by the private sector since 2007, a prospective observational study included all children <5 years hospitalized for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in a Tertiary Care Hospital between 09/2006 and 08/2010. Rotavirus (RV) antigen was detected in stools by a rapid immunochromatographic test and genotype analysis was performed on positive samples by RT-PCR. Compared to 2006-2008, the likelihood of rotavirus infection was significantly reduced among children hospitalized for AGE in 2008-2010 (OR 0.64; 95%CI: 0.49-0.84, p<0.001). This was mainly due to the reduction of RVGE cases in infants 0-11 months (p=0.035). Moreover, RVGE cases as well as the rate of RVGE/10,000 hospitalized children significantly decreased (p=0.009 and p=0.010 respectively). No children with rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) had received any vaccine dose. G4P [8] was the most common genotype (64/90). In conclusion, this study indicates that even low RV vaccination coverage may have significant effect.