Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of two doses of a monovalent rotavirus vaccine (RV1) against hospital admission for rotavirus in Bolivia.
Design: Case-control study.
Setting: Six hospitals in Bolivia, between March 2010 and June 2011.
Participants: 400 hospital admissions for rotavirus, 1200 non-diarrhea hospital controls, and 718 rotavirus negative hospital controls.
Main outcome measures: Odds of antecedent vaccination between case patients and controls; effectiveness of vaccination ((1-adjusted odds ratio)×100), adjusted for age and other confounders; and stratified effectiveness by dose, disease severity, age group, and serotype.
Results: In comparison with non-diarrhea controls, case patients were more likely to be male and attend day care but less likely to have chronic underlying illness, higher level maternal education, and telephones and computers in their home. Rotavirus negative controls were somewhat more similar to case patients but also were more likely to be male and attend day care and less likely to have higher level maternal education and computers in their homes. The adjusted effectiveness of RV1 against hospital admission for rotavirus was 69% (95% confidence interval 54% to 79%) with rotavirus negative controls and 77% (65% to 84%) with non-diarrhea controls. The effectiveness of one dose of RV1 was 36% and 56%, respectively. With both control groups, protection was sustained through two years of life, with similar efficacy against hospital admission among children under 1 year (64% and 77%) and over 1 year of age (72% and 76%). RV1 provided significant protection against diverse serotypes, partially and fully heterotypic to the G1P[8] vaccine. Effectiveness using the two control groups was 80% and 85% against G9P[8], 74% and 93%% against G3P[8], 59% and 69% against G2P[4], and 80% and 87% against G9P[6] strains.
Conclusion: The monovalent rotavirus vaccine conferred high protection against hospital admission for diarrhea due to rotavirus in Bolivian children. Protection was sustained through two years of life against diverse serotypes different from the vaccine strain.