Community‐level burden of acute diarrhoeal illness in the first 2 years of life in Brisbane, Australia: A birth cohort study

Abstract

Aim This study sought to describe the burden of acute diarrhoeal illness (ADI) in an Australian subtropical urban setting following rotavirus vaccine introduction and to investigate the associations between child/family characteristics and ADI. Methods Parents of 154 children from the Observational Research in Childhood Infectious Diseases birth cohort provided daily symptom and health‐care data until the age of 2 years. Results The incidence rate of ADI was 1.07 per child‐year (95% confidence interval: 0.94–1.21). The median length of episode duration was 3 days (25th–75th percentiles: 1–6). The incidence rate was significantly higher in the first month of life and between 6 and 17 months of age compared with 18–23 months, also for children with siblings and in formal childcare. Overall, 49% of ADI episodes led to health‐care visits. Conclusions Despite a successful rotavirus vaccine programme, ADI still results in a substantial disease burden affecting young Australian children and their families.

The Initial Timing and Burden of Viral Gastrointestinal Infections in Australian Infants

“…Nevertheless, our results of the timing of initial NoV infections are comparable with the findings of two Peruvian birth cohorts (18,19). To avoid these pitfalls, studies should be community‐based, where most AGE is managed (2), and collect samples from both symptomatic and asymptomatic participants, in order to inform the prioritizing and planning of future public health interventions (20), such as reinforcing simple hygiene measures to the necessity and timing of vaccine‐delivery. Here, in an urban setting within a high‐income country, we provide prospective community‐based evidence of young children frequently encountering five enteric viruses capable of causing AGE symptoms.…”

“…A cute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a common cause of childhood morbidity in high-income countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Western European nations, and Australia, despite rotavirus vaccines being part of their national immunization programs (1)(2)(3). The gastrointestinal viruses now replacing rotavirus as causing the greatest disease and healthcare burden in children from these countries are the human caliciviruses-noroviruses (NoV) and sapoviruses-and then classic human astroviruses (AstV) and group-F adenoviruses (AdV 40/ 41) (3,4).…”