Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in children under 5. Almost all children have experienced one or more rotivirus gastroenteritis under the age of 5-years. In Korea, two oral live rotavirus vaccines, Rotateq® and Rotarix® are approve...
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in children under 5. Almost all children have experienced one or more rotivirus gastroenteritis under the age of 5-years. In Korea, two oral live rotavirus vaccines, Rotateq® and Rotarix® are approved for use in 2007 and 2008, respectively. However, these vaccines are not currently used under the National Immunization Program (NIP). This study is aimed to investigate 1) International/Domestic distribution of rotavirus serotypes, 2) Prevalence of rotavirus gastroenteritis comparing pre- and post-vaccination, 3) Severity, 4) Burden of illness, 5) Changes in adverse events, 6) Systematic review of previous cost-effectiveness analyses, and 7) Cost-effectiveness analysis of rotavirus vaccines under NIP based on local data. Generated evidences may be used to assist policy-makers. According to literature review, G1-G4 and G9 accounted for 88% of rotavirus serotype globally. Also, no significant association was found between specific vaccine type under NIP and prevalent rotavirus serotype in the same region. Similarly, in Korea, G1P[8], G2P[4], G3P[8] and G4P[6] serotypes were found to be prevalent although distribution varies slightly in region and time. G4P[6] was the most prevalent rotavirus serotype among neonates. Using National Health Insurance Statistical Yearbook data, we observed that the incidence of rotavirus gastroenteritis steadily decreased in post-vaccination period (2010-2016) and it was more apparent in clinics. From the analysis of National Health Insurance Claims raw data comparing before (2003, 2006) and after (2009, 2012, 2015) introduction of vaccination, the incidence of rotavirus gastroenteritis decreased by 48.9% in 2015 due to introduction of rotavirus vaccines and high coverage rate compared to 2006 which had no vaccine available. On the other hand, there was an increasing trend in the proportion of children under 2 months who were too young to be vaccinated. During the study period (2003-2015), severity (measured by inpatient services) and the per-patient burden of illness increased due to increase in the proportion of inpatient, increased hospitalization rate due to decreased copayment of inpatient care for children aged less than 6, and reimbursement of multiplex RT-PCR. Nonetheless, annual national burden of disease for children between 2 to 59 months of age who is most likely to benefit from rotavirus vaccines decreased around 303 billion (57.9%) in 2015 compared to 2006. It implies that rotavirus vaccines contributed to reduce the socio-economic burden associated with rotavirus gastroenteritis in Korean children. Through the analysis of adverse events data, intussusception, nausea and vomiting were detected as significant signals. However, limitation is that no causal relationship could be established because data were collected from spontaneous reporting system. Systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses of rotavirus vaccines summarizing 114 studies concluded that Rotarix alone was more likely to be cost-saving or cost-effective compared to Rotateq alone or mixed adoption under NIP. Also, many of the studies utilized cost-utility analysis (CUA) method the most and suggested vaccine effectiveness with reduced disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for the outcome measurement. As a result of cost-effectiveness analysis of rotavirus vaccine under NIP versus no-vaccination, incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) obtained from societal perspective was 13,675,161 Korean won (KW)/DALY averted for Rotarix® only, 33,089,220 KW/DALY averted for Rotateq® only, and 23,867,542 KW/DALY averted for mixed use of both vaccines. ICURs were less the 1 GDP per capita so the vaccine was considered to be very cost-effective. Result of cost-effectiveness analysis of the rotavirus vaccine under NIP versus current private use showed that ICUR obtained from societal perspective was cost-saving for mixed use of both vaccines. From analysis of claims data in our study, incidence and annual national disease burden of rotavirus gastroenteritis under 5 years considerably decreased in 2015 due to introduction of rotavirus vaccines and more than 80% of coverage rate compared to 2006 which had no vaccine available. But vaccination is still under private use so around 200,000 to 240,000 KW per child is required for full dose vaccination of two types of rotavirus vaccines. Therefore, the implementation of rotavirus vaccination into NIP will significantly reduce household healthcare spending as well as improve national health status by providing vaccines to vulnerable children who could not afford vaccination. WHO recommended rotavirus vaccines to be included in all national immunization program in 2013. Also, our study result showed that rotavirus vaccines under NIP is cost-effective.