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. 2019 Mar 7;37(11):1407-1411.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.01.078. Epub 2019 Feb 11.

Reduction of hospitalizations with diarrhea among children aged 0-5 years in Nouakchott, Mauritania, following the introduction of rotavirus vaccine

Mohamed-Lemine Cheikh-Brahim Ahmed  1 , Jorg Heukelbach  2 , Abdellahi Weddih  3 , Abdelkarim Filali-Maltouf  4 , Mariem Sidatt  3 , Khattry Makhalla  5 , Sid'Ahmed Dahdi  6 , Aly Cheybany Cheikh Ahmed  7 , Mohamed Val El-Mami  8 , Jacqueline E Tate  9 , Umesh D Parashar  9 , Mohammed Benhafid  10
Affiliations

Reduction of hospitalizations with diarrhea among children aged 0-5 years in Nouakchott, Mauritania, following the introduction of rotavirus vaccine

Mohamed-Lemine Cheikh-Brahim Ahmed et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Introduction: Rotavirus vaccine was introduced in Mauritania in December 2014. We investigated hospitalizations with diarrhea during pre and post-vaccination periods among children aged 0-5 years in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of hospital admission registries from November 1st 2012 through October 31th 2017 at all referral hospitals in Nouakchott. We described admissions of children aged 0-5 years by diagnosis, data of admission, age and sex, and compared the proportion of all childhood hospitalizations with diarrhea before and after rotavirus vaccine introduction.

Results: In total, 6552 (19%) of all 34,329 hospitalizations in 0-5 year-olds had diarrhea. Of these, 3523/16,952 (20.7%) were recorded during the pre-vaccine period, 1373/6897 (19.9%) during the transition period (November 2014-October 2015), and 1656/10,480 (15.8%) during the post-vaccination period. The proportion of all childhood hospitalizations with diarrhea during the pre-vaccine period was 22.6% among males and 18.7% among females. Approximately one third (32.3%) of hospitalizations with diarrhea occurred in children aged 6-11 months. During the post-vaccination period, the proportion of hospitalizations with diarrhea declined by 24%, and the highest reduction (74%) was observed in children aged 2 to 5 years (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: The proportion of childhood hospitalizations with diarrhea in Nouakchott was reduced by about one fourth after introduction of rotavirus vaccination in Mauritania, indicating a major impact for public health for children in the capital city.

Keywords: Diarrhea; Mauritania; Nouakchott; Rotavirus; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Monthly variation of cases of diarrhea, stratified by months. x-axis: months of the year; y-axis left side: proportion of hospitalizations with diarrhea in <5 year-olds, y-axis right side: % of coverage vaccine in Nouakchott.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Total admissions, admissions with diarrhea, and relative frequency of admissions with diarrhea in <5 year-olds, according to period of admission.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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