The Impact of Rotavirus Vaccination on the Diarrhea Admission and Mortality Rate in Children at WMTHC, Gezira State, Sudan

A prospective study was conducted at Wad Madani Teaching Hospital for Children (WMTHC), among children below the age of five years. All the children included in this study were admitted with diarrheal disease in the period between January 2011-May 2012.The main objective of this research was to study the impact of rotavirus vaccination on the rate of diarrhea admission andmortality among children. The study population was checked for rotavirus vaccination status (rotavirus vaccine), stool samples were examined for rotavirus in the hospital laboratory, and children with other illness causing diarrhea were excluded from the study. The study was divided in to three phases each of six months period, phase one six months before the implementation of the vaccine included 249 child, phase two six months after the implementation included 304 child and phase three another six months post the vaccine implementation included 120 child, according to the total number admitted during the period of the study. The total number of vaccinated children increased significantly (P.value =0.000) from the first year of vaccine adoption (7.2% to 47.5%), and the majority of vaccinated children were below six months of age. Slight decline in diarrhea related mortality was noticed after the introduction of rotavirus vaccination (from 9.6% to 7%) , while, an increase was noticed on the rate of diarrhea hospital admission(600.4 to 643.6) ,but, no significant differences (P.value = 0.71355197) was noticed between the rate of admissions or deaths in regard to the known rotavirus seasonality in Sudan pre-and after the implementation of the vaccine. A significant difference (P.value =0.000) was observed of rotavirus detection between the first post-vaccine adoption period and the prevaccination period, although, no significant was noticed among the two periods of vaccine adoption.