Herd immunity after two years of the universal mass vaccination program against rotavirus gastroenteritis in AustriaArchived

Herd immunity after two years of the universal mass vaccination program against rotavirus gastroenteritis in Austria Paulke-Korineka M, Kundib M, Rendi-Wagnerc P, de Martind A, Edere G, Schmidle-Lossa B et al. Vaccine 2011; 29: 2791–6.

This paper describes the epidemiology of rotavirus (RV) in Austrian children before and during universal mass campaign. Data from a hospital based surveillance system, representative of 30% of the country, show that incidence rates of children hospitalized with RV gastro enteritis (RV-GE) decreased in 2009 compared to 2008 and compared to the pre-vaccination period 2001–2005. Decreasing hospitalization rates from RV-GE were observed in children of all age groups, even in those not eligible for vaccination according to their age, suggesting herd immunity induced by universal mass vaccination against RV-GE. In 2009 the disease burden was highest in children below three months of age stressing the importance of the early start of the immunization course.