Gastroenteritis by rotavirus in Spanish children. Analysis of the disease burden

Abstract

Rotavirus is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis worldwide. With the commercialisation of effective rotavirus vaccines in Europe in sight, it is necessary to provide studies which evaluate the disease burden. The aim of this study is two-fold, on one hand, to determine the burden of the rotavirus disease in Spanish children under the age of five, and on the other, to estimate the economic cost of these hospitalizations. The study was undertaken during a 5 year period (2000-2004). The rotavirus hospitalization rate was determined using the Minimum Basic Data Set of the national hospital discharge register. The observed data were compared with those expected by applying a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adapted for European Countries. The financial expense of these hospitalizations was estimated. Of all admissions coded as gastroenteritis, 31.6% were due to rotavirus. The hospitalization rate by rotavirus was 480 cases per 100,000 children under five. These data are within the confidence range proposed by the adapted CDC model. The financial expense due to hospitalizations reaches 123,262 euros yearly in a Spanish University Hospital. In conclusion, rotavirus contributes significantly to the hospitalization of acute gastroenteritis. The rate of hospitalization by rotavirus is higher compared to other studies carried out in Spain. In view of future commercialisation of rotavirus vaccines, more in-depth analysis considering direct and indirect costs are necessary.

Epidemiology of rotavirus-associated hospital admissions in the province of Ferrara, Italy

“…Furthermore, as described by other authors [6,8,18,24,26,32], the highest incidence was found in children between 6 and 24 months of age (38%), with a prevalence in males (55.6%). However, there was an unexplained high rate of all patients hospitalized for RVGE who were 5 years of age or older.…”

Modeling seasonal variation in rotavirus hospitalizations for use in evaluating the effect of rotavirus vaccine

“…This incidence looked much higher compared with an incidence of 3.8 and 4.9 per 1,000 child-years observed in two other sentinel hospitals in another region of Japan [Kamiya et al, 2009]. The incidence of rotavirus hospitalizations in Japan (a median of 9.0 in the four reports from Japan) was similar to the median incidence of 7.8 per 1,000 children less than 5 years of age (range: 2.5-20.0) in 11 developed countries [Nakagomi et al, 2005[Nakagomi et al, , 2009Nelson et al, 2005;Podewils et al, 2005;Lu et al, 2006;Chen et al, 2007;Fischer et al, 2007;Huet et al, 2007;Jit and Edmunds, 2007;Newall et al, 2007;Widdowson et al, 2007;Goossens et al, 2008;Luquero et al, 2008;Melliez et al, 2008;Kamiya et al, 2009;Martin et al, 2009;Panatto et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2009].…”

A 4-year study on clinical characteristics of children hospitalized with rotavirus gastroenteritis

“…Data about RV morbidity in Europe are available mainly for southern [2,9,26], northern [16,31], and western parts [1,3,6,11,28]. Only a few studies were performed in eastern Europe [22].…”