Vaccinating infants against rotavirus also helps protect older individuals. (Image: Byron Skinner/CDC)
Starting in 2006, the United States added a rotavirus vaccine to the recommended list of vaccines for infants. The vaccine, which helps to prevent rotavirus-related gastroenteritis, quickly became widely used. By 2008, it was given to 57% of infants and to 17% of children aged 1 years, according to the analysis. This high rate of uptake corresponded with a 46% drop in rotavirus-associated hospitalizations that year among children younger than 5 years. Such data suggest that unvaccinated children also benefited from an overall reduction of rotavirus circulating in this population.
To assess whether these benefits extend to older individuals, a team of scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from a nationally representative sample (Nationwide Inpatient Sample) of US hospitalizations at more than 1000 hospitals across the country. The researchers estimate that in 2008, 66 030 hospitalizations for gastroenteritis were averted in individuals younger than 25 years, with 15% (n=10 220) of the reduction occurring among individuals in the 5- to 24-year-old age range. This reduction in hospitalizations likely saved $204 million, with a little less than one-quarter of the savings attributed to the herd protection that benefited older children and young adults.
The authors concluded that the study provides evidence of the “previously unrecognized burden” of this gastrointestinal illness among older age groups and highlights the importance of infants in the transmission of this virus.
