Immunization Against Rotavirus Infection as an Approach to Prophylaxis of Acute Gastroenteritis in Children

Abstract

Introduction. The only effective method of controlling rotavirus infection is vaccination, which has been mandatory in the Moscow Vaccination Schedule since 2014 and in the Epidemic Vaccinations Schedule. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pentavalent vaccine immunization for the prevention of rotavirus infection in healthy children and children with chronic diseases there were comprehensively examined 182 children, including 83 healthy and 99 cases with problems of health. Vaccination was performed at the age of 6-32 weeks. All adverse events occurred within 42 days after vaccine administration were recorded. There was analyzed the incidence of intestinal infections within the next year since the moment of the first vaccination. There were no revealed any statistically significant differences in the frequency of adverse events between the group of healthy children and the group of cases with different chronic diseases. The most common post-vaccination adverse effects were diarrhea and subfebrile and febrile temperature. During a year follow-up period, a group of patients (n=9) did not have any symptoms of the disease after contacting patients with cases with acute intestinal infections. Conclusion The study shows the safety of rotavirus infection immunization in healthy children and children with chronic diseases. Rotavirus infection vaccination is effective in patients who have had contact with persons suffering from acute intestinal infections. Vaccination against rotavirus infection should be recommended not only for healthy infants but for those with chronic diseases also.