Characteristics of acute diarrhea under the sentinel surveillance system at the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital from 2018 to 2022

Abstract

The study describes a sentinel diarrhea surveillance system at the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital from 2018 - 2022, characterizing the epidemiology of acute diarrhea (AD) due to rotavirus (RV) and identifying circulating RV strains. Of 4,765 AD cases, 861 were positive for RV, accounting for 18.07%. The disease appeared in all months, peaking in the winter-spring months (from October to March of the following year). The groups of children aged 6 - 11 months, 12 - 23 months, and 6 weeks-6 months had the highest number of cases, but the highest positive rate is 24 - 47 months old. About 24% of RV patients under 2 years of age have already been vaccinated, while this proportion among 3 - 5 years of age patients is 41%. Dehydration and no dehydration account for 96,7%, while severe dehydration only accounts for 3.3%, the prevalent RV types identified were G3P[8], G8P[8], G1P[8], G9P[8], which account for 50.7%, 20.6%, 11.4%, and 9%, respectively and changed annually. It is necessary to implement RV vaccines in the Expanded Program on Immunization. Meanwhile maintaining an RV sentinel surveillance system and continuing research on the effectiveness of RV vaccines in Viet Nam are also critical for controlling RV in Vietnam.