Rotavirus Vaccination Is Associated With Reduced Seizure Hospitalization Risk Among Commercially Insured US Children

Increased Risk of Neurological Disease Following Pediatric Rotavirus Infection: A Two-Center Case-Control Study

BACKGROUND

Whether pediatric rotavirus infection is associated with extraintestinal complications remains unknown.

METHODS

We conducted a case-control study to investigate the incidences and risks of rotavirus-associated extraintestinal complications in hospitalized newborns, infants, and children younger than 5 years.

RESULTS

A total of 1325 young inpatients with rotavirus infection (754 male and 539 newborns) and 1840 controls without rotavirus infection (1035 male and 836 newborns) were included. The incidences of neurological disease were higher among rotavirus individuals compared with controls: newborns, 7.24% (39/539) versus 2.87% (24/836), P < .001; infants and young children, 19.59% (154/786) versus 12.35% (124/1004), P < .001. The associated odd ratios (ORs) for neurological disease frequency following rotavirus infection was 2.64 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57-4.44) for newborns and 1.73 (95% CI, 1.34-2.24) for infants and young children, which increased to 2.56 (95% CI, 1.57-4.18) in case-control (1:1) matching analysis and 1.85 (95% CI, 1.41-2.42) in confounder adjustment. Rotavirus infection was associated with other extraintestinal complications, depending on study population and disease severity. Outcome analysis revealed rotavirus infection and its consequences had a significant impact on hospitalization and discharge.

CONCLUSIONS

Rotavirus exposure was associated with a spectrum of extraintestinal complications, particularly neurological disease. Rotavirus infection and subsequent consequences resulted in poor clinical outcomes.

Established and new rotavirus vaccines: a comprehensive review for healthcare professionals

Robust scientific evidence related to two rotavirus (RV) vaccines available worldwide demonstrates their significant impact on RV disease burden. Improving RV vaccination coverage may result in better RV disease control. To make RV vaccination accessible to all eligible children worldwide and improve vaccine effectiveness in high-mortality settings, research into new RV vaccines continues. Although current and in-development RV vaccines differ in vaccine design, their common goal is the reduction of RV disease risk in children <5 years old for whom disease burden is the most significant. Given the range of RV vaccines available, informed decision-making is essential regarding the choice of vaccine for immunization. This review aims to describe the landscape of current and new RV vaccines, providing context for the assessment of their similarities and differences. As data for new vaccines are limited, future investigations will be required to evaluate their performance/added value in a real-world setting.

Association Between Rotavirus Vaccination and Antibiotic Prescribing Among Commercially Insured US Children, 2007-2018

Background

Vaccines may play a role in controlling the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, it is unknown if rotavirus vaccination affects antibiotic use in the United States (US).

Methods

Using data from the IBM MarketScan Commercial Database, we conducted a retrospective cohort of US children born between 2007 and 2018 who were continuously enrolled for the first 8 months of life (N = 2 136 136). We followed children through 5 years of age and compared children who completed a full rotavirus vaccination series by 8 months of age to children who had not received any doses of rotavirus vaccination. We evaluated antibiotic prescriptions associated with an acute gastroenteritis (AGE) diagnosis and defined the switching of antibiotics as the prescription of a second, different antibiotic within 28 days. Using a stratified Kaplan-Meier approach, we estimated the cumulative incidence for each study group, adjusted for receipt of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, provider type, and urban/rural status.

Results

Overall, 0.8% (n = 17 318) of participants received an antibiotic prescription following an AGE diagnosis. The 5-year adjusted relative cumulative incidence of antibiotic prescription following an AGE diagnosis was 0.793 (95% confidence interval [CI], .761–.827) among children with complete rotavirus vaccination compared to children without rotavirus vaccination. Additionally, children with complete vaccination were less likely to switch antibiotics (0.808 [95% CI, .743–.887]). Rotavirus vaccination has averted an estimated 67 045 (95% CI, 53 729–80 664) antibiotic prescriptions nationally among children born between 2007 and 2018.

Conclusions

These results demonstrate that rotavirus vaccines reduce antibiotic prescribing for AGE, which could help reduce the growth of antibiotic resistance.

TIPICO X: report of the 10th interactive infectious disease workshop on infectious diseases and vaccines

TIPICO is an expert meeting and workshop that aims to provide the most recent evidence in the field of infectious diseases and vaccination. The 10th Interactive Infectious Disease TIPICO workshop took place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on November 21-22, 2019. Cutting-edge advances in vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, rotavirus, human papillomavirus, Neisseria meningitidis, influenza virus, and Salmonella Typhi were discussed. Furthermore, heterologous vaccine effects were updated, including the use of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine as potential treatment for type 1 diabetes. Finally, the workshop also included presentations and discussion on emergent virus and zoonoses, vaccine resilience, building and sustaining confidence in vaccination, approaches to vaccine decision-making, pros and cons of compulsory vaccination, the latest advances in decoding infectious diseases by RNA gene signatures, and the application of big data approaches.

Rotavirus Vaccination and Type 1 Diabetes Risk Among US Children With Commercial Insurance

This cohort study uses commercial insurance data to examine the association between rotavirus vaccination and type 1 diabetes incidence.

The control of diarrhea, the case of a rotavirus vaccine

[No disponible]

Reduction in hospitalisations for acute gastroenteritis-associated childhood seizures since introduction of rotavirus vaccination: a time-series and change-point analysis of hospital admissions in England

Introduction

The incidence of severe childhood diarrhoea has fallen substantially following the introduction of rotavirus vaccine in the UK in July 2013. Since children with rotavirus infection may experience febrile and afebrile seizures, we evaluated the impact of rotavirus vaccination on seizure hospitalisations in children in England.

Methods

Using data from Hospital Episode Statistics, we employed interrupted time-series analyses to assess changes in monthly hospital admissions for seizures among children aged <5 years from July 2000 to June 2017. Outcome measures comprised all seizures and febrile seizures, with and without a co-diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Models were adjusted for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) introduction. Change-point analysis was used to independently identify step-changes in the time-series.

Results

Among hospitalised children aged <5 years, the incidence of any seizures and febrile seizures with AGE decreased post-vaccine introduction by 23% (95% CI: 11% to 33%) and 31% (95% CI: 19% to 41%), respectively. For febrile seizures with AGE, a single change-point was identified in July 2013 (95% CI: June 2013 to December 2013). Reductions in seizure incidence were higher during the rotavirus season (49%, 95% CI: 37% to 58%) compared with out-of-season (13%, 95% CI: −4 to 28%) and showed no relation to PCV introduction. There were small reductions in any seizures with any co-diagnosis (4%, 95% CI: 0% to 8%) and in febrile seizures with any co-diagnosis (10%, 95% CI: 2% to 16%).

Conclusion

Rotavirus vaccination has reduced hospitalisations for seizures associated with AGE in England, providing additional evidence of population-level impact of rotavirus vaccination on seizure incidence in high-income countries.

Rotavirus infection beyond the gut

The landscape of rotavirus (RV) infection has changed substantially in recent years. Autoimmune triggering has been added to clinical spectrum of this pathology, which is now known to be much broader than diarrhea. The impact of RV vaccines in these other conditions is becoming a growing field of research. The importance of host genetic background in RV susceptibility has been revealed, therefore increasing our understanding of vaccine effectiveness and giving some clues about the limited efficacy of RV vaccines in low-income settings. Also, interaction of RV with intestinal microbiota seems to play a key role in the process of infection vaccine effect. This article reviews current findings on the extraintestinal impact of RV infection and their widening clinical picture, and the recently described mechanisms of host susceptibility to infection and vaccine effectiveness. RV infection is a systemic disease with clinical and pathophysiological implications beyond the gut. We propose an “iceberg” model for this pathology with almost hidden clinical implications away from the gastrointestinal tract and eventually triggering the development of autoimmune diseases. Impact of current vaccines is being influenced by host genetics and gut microbiota interactions and these factors must be taken into account in the development of public health programs.

Lack of impact of rotavirus vaccination on childhood seizure hospitalizations in England - An interrupted time series analysis

Observational studies have linked a reduction in childhood seizures (CS) to the introduction of rotavirus vaccination (RV). England is opportunely placed to explore this due to well-defined introduction, high uptake of RV and centralised Hospital Episodes Statistics recording all admissions. We investigated the association between seizures and vaccine use through interrupted time-series analysis of all CS admissions in children <3 years old (ICD-10 codes; G40^∗-G41^∗, R56.0^∗) during 2007-2017. We did not detect a statistically significant association between the introduction of RV and admission with febrile (p = 0.84), afebrile (p = 0.83) or all CS (p = 0.93), even when limited to peak rotavirus seasonality (March). This is the first ecological study in a country that exclusively uses the monovalent vaccine. Although a negative finding, we would argue that if an effect cannot be detected at this population level then it is unlikely to be clinically or economically significant but generates hypotheses of potential non-specific effects.