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Rotavirus vaccination led to herd immunity, significant cost savings
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Rotavirus vaccination prevented infection in unvaccinated older children and adults. This led to about 10,000 averted hospitalizations in children aged 5 years and older during 2008 and to almost $40 million in health care savings, according to Ben A. Lopman, PhD.
“Rotavirus vaccines were approved for use in young children in the United States in 2006, and the benefits of vaccination in young children are now well established,” Lopman, of the CDC’s division of viral diseases, told Infectious Disease News. “Our study showed that the burden of rotavirus — severe enough to require hospitalization — in older children and adults is larger than we were previously aware. By vaccinating infants, we can indirectly prevent older children and adults from getting rotavirus.”
The researchers pooled data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) between 2000 and 2008 to determine direct and indirect benefits from infant rotavirus vaccination and whether the benefits of the program also extended to unvaccinated children aged older than 5 years, adults and the elderly.
Fewer rotavirus and cause-unspecified gastroenteritis hospital discharges were observed across all age groups after introduction of the vaccine. Further, significant reductions were observed in age groups zero to 4, 5 to14 and 15 to 24 years, according to the study.
“We estimate that 15% of the total 66,000 averted hospitalizations and 20% of the $204 million in averted direct medical costs attributable to the vaccination program were among unvaccinated 5- to 24-year-olds,” the researchers wrote. “This study demonstrates a previously unrecognized burden of severe rotavirus in the population older than 5 years and the primacy of very young children in the transmission of rotavirus.”
Further research will be necessary to determine whether these benefits continue in subsequent years, according to Lopman. “It will also be important to know if these indirect benefits of the vaccine program also occur in developing countries, where these vaccines are needed most,” he said.
In an accompanying editorial, Roger I. Glass, MD, PhD, director of the Fogarty International Center at the NIH, wrote: “The large-scale introduction of a new vaccine can uncover many secrets and surprises about the epidemiology of disease that might not be discovered in any other way. Examination of the outcome of a vaccine introduction can validate prior assumptions concerning the burden of disease and the economic consequences of the vaccination program, as well as determine herd effects of the program arising from either a reduction in the environmental load of the infectious agent or a decrease in those susceptible that might blunt transmission of the agent.”– by Ashley DeNyse
For more information:
- Glass RI. J Infect Dis. 2011;doi:10.1093/infdis/jir477.
- Lopman BA. J Infect Dis. 2011;doi:10.1093/infdis/jir492.
Disclosure: Dr. Lopman reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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