Georgia prepares for introduction of rotavirus vaccine

A national conference on introduction of the rotavirus vaccine will take place on 27–28 February 2013 in Tbilisi, Georgia, with participation of consultants from WHO/Europe and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The targeted audience will be paediatricians, epidemiologists and members of medical societies and faculties in Georgia.

The aims of the conference are: 

• to provide an overview of the current situation and progress on introduction of the rotavirus vaccine; 
• to present and discuss results of sentinel surveillance on rotaviruses conducted in collaboration with WHO in the period 2008–2012, including molecular and clinical studies; 
• to provide an overview of the communication strategy to promote acceptance of the rotavirus vaccine among medical workers and parents; 
• to discuss programmatic aspects and challenges of introduction of rotavirus vaccine; 
• to review best practices; 
• to initiate plans to evaluate rotavirus vaccine impact in Georgia.

Background

Rotaviruses infect nearly every child by the age of 5 years and are globally the leading cause of severe, dehydrating diarrhoea in children of this age group. This infection plays a considerable role in countries where diarrhoeal illness causes significant mortality. In countries where diarrhoeal disease mortality is low, rotavirus infections are still common and carry large associated health care and societal costs.

In an updated position paper published on 1 February 2013, WHO recommends the use of rotavirus vaccines in all national immunization programmes. Vaccination offers the possibility of reducing the rotavirus disease burden, which could save lives in lower-income countries and reduce hospital admission and nosocomial infection costs in higher-income countries.

WHO/Europe works with Member States to accelerate the introduction of rotavirus vaccine into their national immunization programmes, and to establish a regional surveillance network to collect local data on disease burden and monitor the impact of vaccines.