Acute gastroenteritis hospitalizations after implementation of universal mass vaccination against rotavirus

Abstract Background Estonia implemented rotavirus universal mass vaccination (RV UMV) in July 2014. We aimed to describe changes in acute gastroenteritis (AGE) hospitalization during RV seasons before (2007–2013) and after (2015–2018) RV UMV and compare patient profile of hospitalized AGE patients aged 0–18 years during first two consecutive RV seasons 2015 vs 2016. Methods We described AGE hospitalization patterns pre-and post-vaccine era using Estonian Health Insurance Fund (HIF) database. During a two-year observational multicenter study in seven Estonian hospitals from 01st of February 2015 to 30th August 2016 we assessed patient profile of all patients who met pre-determined AGE criteria. Results In post-vaccine era AGE hospitalization rate decreased from 10 to 8 per 1000 population (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.79–0.83) compared to pre-vaccine era. Decreased RV seasonal activity, 81% (95% CI 77–84) and 55% (95% CI 52–58) reduction of rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) hospitalization among age groups In the multicenter observational study, among 2249 AGE patients hospitalized median age of RVGE patients increased from 2 to 3 years (p  Conclusion RV UMV lead to immediate and sustainable reduction of hospitalizations due to RVGE in children aged