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Rotavirus surveillance and epidemiology

Rotavirus infection causes acute gastroenteritis. It generally occurs in a seasonal pattern and affects mainly infants and young children, occurring mostly in winter and early spring. Symptoms include vomiting, fever and watery diarrhoea. Symptoms usually last three to eight days.

Before the introduction of the vaccine rotavirus was the main cause of hospitalisation for gastroenteritis in infants in the UK. In the UK an estimated 300,000 episodes of rotavirus gastroenteritis occured each year in children less than five years, with approximately 12,700 hospitalisations (Djuretic et al 1999, Ryan et al 1996). Although mortality is low with adequate supportive treatment, it may be fatal where rehydration is not available.  Spread is mainly faecal-oral person to person.  Almost all children have experienced an episode by five years of age. The number of reported cases of rotavirus has reduced by over 70% since the introduction of the vaccine into the UK childhood programme.

 

Rotavirus in Wales

Chart showing the rate per 100,000 population and number of confirmed cases of rotavirus in Wales from 2009-2023

Rate per 100,000 population and number of confirmed cases of rotavirus in Wales from 2009-2023

Source: 2009-2013: Public Health Wales Health Protection, CoSurv laboratory confirmations, 2014 onwards: Public Health Wales laboratory reports as at 30/05/2024, date refers to date specimen received.
Year Number of cases Rate per 100,000 population
2009 927 30.90
2010 994 33.10
2011 826 27.50
2012 642 20.90
2013 698 22.70
2014 121 3.91
2015 356 11.49
2016 182 5.85
2017 253 8.10
2018 157 5.00
2019 199 6.31
2020 31 0.98
2021 64 2.02
2022 236 7.45
2023 211 6.66

Confirmed cases of rotavirus in Wales by age 2009-2023

Year <1 1-4 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-64 65+ Unknown All ages
2009 357 510 28 0 3 3 4 18 4 927
2010 385 560 19 2 2 0 4 1 21 994
2011 278 516 12 1 0 0 2 1 16 826
2012 241 384 6 1 0 0 4 3 3 642
2013 245 440 11 0 0 0 0 1 1 698
2014 25 95 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 121
2015 51 290 13 0 0 2 0 0 0 356
2016 41 125 11 0 0 1 2 2 0 182
2017 62 167 16 0 0 1 0 7 0 253
2018 40 108 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 157
2019 31 151 15 1 0 0 0 1 0 199
2020 16 14 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 31
2021 29 32 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 64
2022 49 171 14 0 0 0 1 1 0 236
2023 40 160 9 0 0 0 1 1 0 211

 

Confirmed rotavirus cases in 2019-2023 by quarter of onset

Quarter Number of cases in 2019 % of 2019 year total Number of cases in 2020 % of 2020 year total Number of cases in 2021 % of 2021 year total Number of cases in 2022 % of 2022 year total Number of cases in 2023 % of 2023 year total
Jan-Mar 59 29.6 13 41.9 12 18.8 68 28.8 43 20.4
Apr-Jun 103 51.8 5 16.1 20 31.2 92 39 113 53.6
Jul-Sep 26 13.1 10 32.3 15 23.4 62 26.3 40 19
Oct-Dec 11 5.5 3 9.7 17 26.6 14 5.9 15 7.1

Immunisation against rotavirus

The rotavirus vaccine is given to babies as part of their routine childhood immunisations. It is given as two doses when a baby is two and three months old.

Uptake and coverage of all recommended childhood immunisations are monitored and reported by Public Health Wales quarterly and annually at local and national levels in the COVER (Coverage of Vaccination Evaluation Rapidly) report. This is published on both a quarterly and annual basis.  

A study was presented at ESCAIDE in 2017 on the impact of the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in reducing health inequalities in GP gastrointestinal consultation rates in children under 5 in Wales: European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology 2016 (page 104).