Social and spatial inequalities in Rotaviral enteritis: a case for universally funded vaccination in New Zealand.

Rotaviruses have long been recognised as the most common cause of diarrhoea-related childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. The benefits of national rotavirus vaccination programmes have been proven, with estimates of the reduction in hospital stays ranging from 70% to 90%. Previous work has found spatial variation in rotaviral rates between areas in Australia and Germany. This study sought to identify spatial and spatio-temporal variation in clustering of high and low neighbourhood rates of paediatric hospital admissions for RV disease in Auckland, New Zealand for the period 2006-2011.Annual clusters of rotavirus hospitalisations were identified using a Local Moran's I Index from ArcGIS. Spatio-temporal variation during the study period used a retrospective spatial variation in temporal trends scan statistic in SatScan.Annual clusters of high and low rotavirus rates were identified for each year of the study and the spatio-temporal scan statistic confirmed that spatial clustering of rotavirus rates had shifted significantly during the study period.This research suggests that targeted rotaviral intervention is inappropriate and supports the introduction of a fully funded rotavirus vaccine in New Zealand in 2014.