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SAN DIEGO — The introduction of both pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) and rotavirus vaccines (RVs) likely led to a reduction in diarrhea and respiratory infection-related hospitalizations within the past five years ears, according to research presented at ASM’s 55th Interscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC/ICC).
“Our findings confirm the utmost importance of co-contribution of pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines in reduction of burden of severe diarrhea and respiratory diseases reduction, especially during winter, the season with peak hospitalization rates of young children,” principal investigator, Ron Dagan, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the Pediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Israel, said during a media event.
Dr Dagan’s study aimed to observe the combined effect of the co-administration of PCVs and rotavirus vaccines, and was part of an enhanced prospective surveillance that took place in southern Israel.
Within less than five years from introduction, the rate of hospital admission due to rotavirus diarrhea in children younger than 2 years dropped by 78% and that of children younger than 2 years with x-ray-proven pneumonia dropped by 46%. For outpatient visits these figures were 80% and 67%, respectively.
These figures translate into reduction of 21.5 yearly pediatric hospitalizations per 1000 children younger than 2 years (11.1 and 10.4 visits for diarrhea and respiratory diseases, respectively), and 20.7 yearly Emergency-room visits per 1000 children younger than 2 years (11.4 and 9.3 for diarrhea and respiratory infections, respectively).
The study was funded in part by the rotavirus and pneumocccal vaccine manufacturers, and was a part of the evaluation plan of vaccine introduction of the Israel Ministry of Health.
REFERENCE
1. Dagan R. Co-contribution of rotavirus vaccines and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in reduction of pediatric hospital burden. Presented at: ICAAC/ICC 2015; Sept. 17-21, 2015; San Diego.
