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An estimate of the proportion of diarrhoeal disease episodes seen by general practitioners attributable to rotavirus in children under 5 y of age in England and Wales
Author(s) -
Djuretic T,
Ramsay M,
Gay N,
Wall P,
Ryan M,
Fleming D
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1999.tb14324.x
Subject(s) - medicine , diarrhoeal disease , rotavirus , pediatrics , environmental health , demography , diarrhea , sociology
Mean weekly incidence rates for a 4‐week period of new episodes of infectious intestinal disease (IID) and laboratory reports of faecal isolations in children under 5 y of age presenting in general practice were used to estimate the incidence of IID due to rotavirus infection in England and Wales. Between January 1992 and December 1996, a total of 92452 new episodes of IID were seen at sentinel general practices and reported to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research Unit in Birmingham, UK. Of these 32% (29592) were in children under 5 y of age. During the same period the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) in London, UK received 159532 reports of faecal identifications in children under 5 yof age; 69219 (43%) of these wer due to rotavirus. By modelling RCGP data and laboratory reports, the proportion of episodes attributable to rotavirus infection was estimated to be 29% (95% CI: 24% to 34%). By extrapolation of RCGP data it was estimated that rotavirus accounted for 762000 of new episodes of IID nationally in children under 5 y of age between January 1992 and December 1996. Implementation of a rotavjrus vaccinatio programme could substantially reduce the incidence of childhood diarrhoea. □ General practice, rotavirus