Peer-reviewed article
Rotavirus Vaccine Coverage and Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Immunization in a Birth Cohort of Children (2017-2023) in Suzhou, China.
Jinling Gao, Kunpeng Zhu, Lin Luan, Benfeng Zheng, Juan Xu et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tracked rotavirus vaccine coverage and safety in children born between 2017 and 2023 in Suzhou, China. Only 14.65% of children in this birth cohort received the rotavirus vaccine, with uptake gradually increasing over the period. The vaccine was generally safe, with 89 reported adverse events out of approximately 2.57 million doses administered, giving a low incident rate of 3.47 per 10,000 doses. Most adverse events were mild general reactions rather than serious complications.
Key points
- Rotavirus vaccine coverage in Suzhou's 2017-2023 birth cohort was 14.65%, indicating relatively low uptake
- The pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) proportion increased over time, reaching highest coverage in the 2023 cohort
- Peak vaccination age was between 2 and 8 months, with 99.88% of RV5 doses given at 6-12 weeks
- Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) were rare: 3.47 per 10,000 doses, with 86 general reactions and 3 abnormal reactions reported
- Authors concluded the vaccine has a favorable safety profile and recommended strengthening health education to increase public confidence
Limitations
This is a descriptive surveillance study without a comparison group, so it cannot determine what factors drive low vaccine coverage or compare safety profiles across different vaccines. The study focuses on reported adverse events only and may not capture all incidents.
Abstract
Objectives: To analyze the changes in the proportion of the rotavirus vaccine among children born in the 2017-2023 cohort and to assess the current status of rotavirus vaccination coverage in Suzhou, China. To monitor adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) so as to provide data for scientific guidance regarding the rotavirus vaccine. Methods: The basic information of children born between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2023 in Suzhou and information regarding rotavirus vaccination were collected through the child module of Jiangsu Province Vaccination Integrated Service Management Information System. Information on AEFI case reports was collected from the AEFI monitoring system of the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention. Descriptive epidemiological methods were used to analyze the rotavirus vaccine characteristics and AEFI classification, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparative analysis. Results: The proportion of children born in the 2017-2023 cohort who received the first dose of the rotavirus vaccine was 14.65%. The reassortant rotavirus vaccine, live, oral, pentavalent (RV5) proportion gradually increased, and the vaccine proportion of children in the 2023 birth cohort reached the highest. The peak age for rotavirus vaccination was between 2 and 8 months. A total of 49,507 children (99.88%) received the first dose of RV5 at the age of 6-12 weeks in this birth cohort, and there was a statistically significant difference in the median duration of the first dose of RV5 among children of different age groups (p < 0.001). A total of 89 cases of AEFIs were reported, and the reported incidence of AEFIs was 3.47/10,000 doses. Among them, 86 cases of general reactions were reported, with a reported incidence of 3.35/10,000 doses, and three cases of abnormal reactions were reported, with a reported incidence of 0.12/10,000 doses. Conclusions: The rotavirus vaccine proportion of children born in Suzhou from 2017 to 2023 was not high. The incidence of AEFI reports from the rotavirus vaccine is relatively low, indicating a favorable safety profile. Efforts should prioritize strengthening health education on rotavirus gastroenteritis to enhance public confidence in vaccination, thereby ensuring the effective prevention and control of rotavirus gastroenteritis.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
Problem
Low rotavirus vaccine coverage and need to monitor safety of rotavirus vaccination in children
- Intervention
- Rotavirus vaccination (primarily pentavalent rotavirus vaccine RV5) with adverse event surveillance
- Population
- Children born in Suzhou, China between 2017-2023 (birth cohort study)
Key finding
Rotavirus vaccine coverage was 14.65% in the 2017-2023 birth cohort, with RV5 proportion gradually increasing