Incidence of hospitalization due to community-acquired rotavirus infection: a 12-year study (1996-2008)

The incidence of hospitalization for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a useful parameter to assess the utility of the new rotavirus vaccines in high-income countries. Children hospitalized for AGE were identified by searching hospital discharge data and the records of the microbiology laboratory of Hospital Donostia. Rotavirus antigen was investigated in 96.1% of the 1114 children aged 1 month to <5 years hospitalized for AGE in the study period. Nearly 40% were rotavirus positive (44.9% of the 798 children aged 1 month to <2 years), with G1[P8] being the predominant genotype. The mean annual incidence rate of hospitalization due to rotavirus AGE was 29.8 and 63.7 cases/10000 inhabitants in the <5 and <2 years age groups, respectively, in 1996-1999, decreasing to 13.6 and 27.4 cases/10000 inhabitants in <5 and <2 years age groups, respectively, in 2002-2005 (P < 0.001). This decrease coincided with a significant increase in the consumption of oral rehydration solutions.