Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 24, 2025
Assays for the Specific Growth Rate and Cell-binding Ability of Rotavirus
Published on: January 28, 2019
Success ofrotavirus vaccination in Finland, a register based study measuring impact beyond overall effectiveness
Anna Solastie1, Tuija Leino2, Jukka Ollgren2
1Department of Health Security, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Mannerheimintie 166, Postal Address: P.O. Box 30, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland; Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Latokartanonkaari 7 Postal Address: P.O. Box 27, 00014 Helsinki Finland.
Insights
Finland
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Vaccinology
- Public Health Surveillance
Background:
- Rotavirus remains a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in children globally.
- Despite vaccine availability since 2006, significant burden persists.
- Finland integrated rotavirus vaccination into its national program in 2009.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of the national rotavirus vaccination program on hospitalizations for acute gastroenteritis.
- To quantify the direct, indirect (herd), and total vaccine effectiveness (VE).
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of over 200,000 children aged 0.5-2 years.
- Comparison of hospitalization data from pre-vaccination (2002-2003) and post-vaccination (2014-2015) cohorts.
- Calculation of incidence rates and vaccine effectiveness using individual vaccination records.
Main Results:
- A 96% reduction in rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) hospitalizations and a 78% reduction in all-cause gastroenteritis (AGE) hospitalizations observed in the post-vaccination era.
- Direct VE was 96% for RVGE and 53% for AGE.
- Indirect (herd) protection was estimated at 67% for RVGE and 56% for AGE.
Conclusions:
- The Finnish national rotavirus vaccination program has significantly reduced hospitalizations for RVGE and AGE in young children.
- Rotavirus continues to circulate, necessitating ongoing surveillance for genotype shifts and disease trends in older age groups.
Introduction:
Even with vaccines available since 2006, rotavirus continues to be a major cause of acute gastroenteritis globally in children under 5 years old. Finland introduced the rotavirus vaccine to its national vaccination programme in 2009. Since then hospitalizations due to gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus (RVGE) and of all causes (AGE) have been reduced significantly in young children.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis of data from register databases consisting of over 200 000 children aged 0.5-2 years. Children born before rotavirus vaccines were available (2002, 2003) and after the implementation of rotavirus vaccination programme (2014, 2015) were followed for episodes of acute infectious gastroenteritis. We calculated the incidences of hospital outpatient and inpatient episodes and used individual vaccination records to estimate the overall, total, direct and indirect vaccine effect (VE %).
Results:
Among children born in 2014 and 2015, there was a 96% reduction in inpatient RVGE episodes and a 78% reduction in episodes of inpatient AGE compared to the pre-vaccination era, comprising the overall VE. Direct effectiveness was 96% and 53% for RVGE and AGE respectively. Herd effect i.e. indirect protection was estimated to be 67% against inpatient RVGE and 56% against inpatient AGE. Protection acquired by the vaccinated children when compared to pre vaccination era i.e. the total VE was 99% for inpatient RVGE and 79% for inpatient AGE.
Conclusions:
Although overall incidences for every disease type studied were reduced, rotavirus is still circulating with seasonality and there is a slight shift of disease towards the older age groups. Together with changes observed in the distribution of rotavirus genotypes, our results indicate that continuous monitoring is still necessary.
