Did Large-Scale Vaccination Drive Changes in the Circulating Rotavirus Population in Belgium?

ABSTRACT: Vaccination can place selective pressures on viral populations, leading to changes in the distribution of strains as viruses evolve to escape immunity from the vaccine. Vaccine-driven strain replacement is a major concern after nationwide rotavirus vaccine introductions. However, the distribution of the predominant rotavirus genotypes varies from year to year in the absence of vaccination, making it difficult to determine what changes can be attributed to the vaccines. To gain insight in the underlying dynamics driving changes in the rotavirus population, we fitted a hierarchy of mathematical models to national and local genotype-specific hospitalization data from Belgium, where large-scale vaccination was introduced in 2006. We estimated that natural- and vaccine-derived immunity was stro

SUBMITTER: Pitzer VE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4685644 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature