Hospital and laboratory data were analysed in three hospitals to estimate rotavirus disease burden in 1994‐96. Community acquired gastroenteritis was diagnosed in 757 children of whom 41% tested positive for rotavirus. A total of 196 children had rotavirus nosocomial infections (39% of all rotavirus community‐acquired and nosocomial cases) Infants less than 24 months old and children less than 3 months old comprised 74% and 11.9% of admissions for rotavirus, respectively. Almost 94% of children with rotavirus infection had severe gastroenteritis (score 11). The annual rate of rotavirus associated hospitalization in Poland in 1996 was 3.1/1000 children under the age of 60 months and 5.2/1000 infants under 24 months of age. The mean hospital stay was 9.5 d (±9.8 d). We estimated that 8918 children under 60 months of age were hospitalized for rotavirus gastroenteritis in 1996; they accounted for 84899 inpatient days. We conclude that rotavirus is a leading aetiological agent of severe gastroenteritis in young children in Poland and that the Burden of this infection is significant. Rotavirus vaccine could significantly decrease the hospitalization rate and the financial impact of rotavirus Gastroenteritis in Poland. □Acute diarrhoea, disease burden, epidemiology, gastroenteritis, rotavirus

Background. Infodemiology is focused on the analysis of web content to predict health phenomena. Google Trends (GT) is a free and publicly available service that permits analyses of searches performed with the Google web search engine. With GT it is possible to specify how often certain keywords are searched for.Objectives. The purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility of using data on the frequency of searches with the Google search engine to predict influenza incidence.Material and methods. Using the GT service, data on the frequency of searches for the Polish equivalents of "flu", "cold" and "fever" in the period of 2014-2016 in Poland were retrieved. Simultaneously, the epidemiological reports prepared by the National Institute of Public Health -National Institute of Hygiene (NIPH-NIH) were obtained for influenza incidence in the same period. Correlations between the variables were assessed using Spearman's rank-order correlation. Results.A statistically significant correlation was confirmed between the average daily search coefficients (ADSC) for all 3 keywords and weekly influenza incidence according to the NIPH-NIH data. The strongest correlation was found for the ADSC of the word "cold" (r = 0.77; p < 0.05). Conclusions.The frequency of searches implemented with the Google search engine may be used for predicting the incidence of influenza in the Polish population.