Economic Impact of a Rotavirus Vaccine in Brazil (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Rotavirus can lead to severe life-threatening gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide. Unlike many other enteropathogens, rotavirus affects children in both developed and developing countries (1-2) and is not associated with socioeconomic factors. However, the risk of dying from severe rotavirus-associated infection is higher in lower-income countries due to various factors, including limited access to healthcare facilities, malnutrition, earlier onset of infection, and mixed infections involving rotavirus and other pathogens. Rotavirus infects most children by three years of age, and prevention of rotavirus spread is virtually impossible, even in environments with the highest hygiene measures (2). Improvements in the availability of safe water and sanitation, access to oral rehydration therapy, and higher vaccine coverage have reduced the overall burden of gastroenteritis in children (3-4). From 1980 to 2002, Brazil showed a decrease by 91.5% in mortality due to gastroenteritis among children aged less than five years (3-4). During the same period, the proportion of infant deaths attributed to gastroenteritis fell from 41% to 4.7%, but with a range of 2.1% in the Southeast region to 7.8% in the Northeast (3-4). Infant mortality decreased from 85.2 per 1,000 children in 1980 to 25.1 per 1,000 children in 2002 (3-4).