ABSTRACT
AIMS: To examine the disease burden and epidemiology of community acquired rotavirus gastroenteritis in Austrian children treated in a paediatric practice. METHODS: A prospective, population based, multicentre study in four paediatric practices and two children's hospitals (Innsbruck and Leoben). Children = 48 months of age presenting with gastroenteritis during a six month period of rotavirus peak between December 1997 and May 1998 were included. Prospective testing of stool samples for rotavirus was performed using ELISA. RESULTS: A total of 6969 children were enrolled; 171 (2.4%) had community acquired gastroenteritis. Of 144 children who could be included in further analysis, 49 (34%; median age 16.7 months) were rotavirus positive, and 95 (66%; median age 17.0 months) were rotavirus negative. Three of the rotavirus positive children (median age 14.6 months) were hospitalised. The severity of rotavirus positive gastroenteritis was significantly higher than that of rotavirus negative gastroenteritis. The incidence of community acquired gastroenteritis was 4.67 per 100 children per year, and of rotavirus positive gastroenteritis 1.33 per 100 children per year. CONCLUSION: Rotavirus is a relevant cause of community acquired gastroenteritis in children aged 4 years and younger treated by a paediatrician. The data can be used as a basis for developing strategies to prevent infection.
Subject(s)
Gastroenteritis/virology , Rotavirus Infections/complications , Acute Disease , Austria/epidemiology , Child, Preschool , Community-Acquired Infections/epidemiology , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Female , Gastroenteritis/epidemiology , Humans , Infant , Male , Prospective Studies , Rotavirus Infections/epidemiology , Rural Health/statistics & numerical data , Urban Health/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the average costs per child for rotavirus (RV) acute gastroenteritis from different perspectives, from the hospital's, third-party payer's, pediatrician's and family's perspectives as well as in summary from the societal one. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cost-of-illness study is based on data collected alongside a 6-month prospective, laboratory-confirmed epidemiologic study that evaluated the disease burden of RV infection in Austrian children < or =48 months of age. The study population at risk to contract a community- and nosocomially acquired acute gastroenteritis comprised 9,687 children. All of the 51 children with community-acquired and 33 with nosocomially acquired RV acute gastroenteritis were included in this analysis. The annual costs were estimated by means of extrapolation. RESULTS: For community-acquired RV acute gastroenteritis, the average costs from the hospital's perspective were EURO (EUR) 97.8, from the third party payer's perspective 95.6 EUR, followed by 29.9 EUR and 9.8 EUR from the family's and pediatrician's perspectives, respectively. For nosocomially acquired RV acute gastroenteritis the average costs from the hospital's perspective were 1,494 EUR and from the third party payer's and family's perspectives 831 EUR and 116.8 EUR, respectively. In summary the average costs from the societal point of view for community-acquired RV acute gastroenteritis were 250 EUR and for nosocomial infections 2,442 EUR. After extrapolation the estimated total annual costs were 7.17 EUR million to 0.97 EUR million (13.6%) caused by community-acquired RV acute gastroenteritis and 6.2 EUR million (86.4%) caused by nosocomial RV acute gastroenteritis. CONCLUSION: This cost-of-illness study clearly demonstrates the great impact of RV acute gastroenteritis, mainly of nosocomially acquired infection, on medical health care costs in Austria. To cut costs efforts in disease prevention should be encouraged.
Subject(s)
Cost of Illness , Cross Infection/economics , Gastroenteritis/economics , Health Care Costs/statistics & numerical data , Rotavirus Infections/economics , Austria , Child, Preschool , Community Health Services/economics , Community-Acquired Infections/economics , Female , Hospital Costs/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Infant , MaleABSTRACT
To assess the potential benefits of a reassortant tetravalent rotavirus vaccine, we investigated stool specimens from children in three different groups by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for rotavirus G and P types: (i) children not hospitalized with community-acquired rotavirus-acute gastroenteritis (RV-AGE), (ii) children hospitalized for RV-AGE, and (iii) children with nosocomially acquired RV-AGE. From a total of 553 samples investigated, 335 were positive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, of which 294 (88%) were positive by RT-PCR. Among the RT-PCR-positive samples, the predominant types were G1P[8] (84%), followed by G4P[8] (9%) and G3P[8] (2%). No differences between the three groups were observed, suggesting that community vaccination will diminish the most cost-relevant cases of hospitalizations and nosocomial infections.