Research Roundup

Annually, among under-fives in Europe, rotavirus gastroenteritis is responsible for 75 000 to 150 000 hospitalisations and up to some 600 000 medical encounters in emergency departments or outpatient clinics. This is cited by Cohen et al (2022), who observe that rotavirus vaccines have been available since 2004; are highly effective in preventing rotavirus diarrhoea; and since 2006 the World Health Organization has recommended that rotavirus vaccination should be included in all national infant vaccination programmes.

In the UK, human rotavirus vaccination (HRV) was introduced into the infant immunisation schedule in 2013, and the effectiveness of two doses of HRV in preventing laboratory-confirmed rotavirus gastroenteritis was reported as 85% in children aged <1 year, and 54% in children >1 year. The authors further note that initial fears that implementation of rotavirus universal mass vaccination (UMV) would result in an overall increase in the incidence of intussusception in young children have been unfounded.