@Article{, title={Efficacy of rotavirus vaccine among vaccinated children in Baquba-Diyala province-Iraq}, author={Shihab A. Al-Azawi and Hasan . SH. and Surra A. Al-Azawi}, journal={IRAQI JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE المجلة العراقية لطب المجتمع}, volume={33}, number={2}, pages={97-102}, year={2020}, abstract={Background: Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RGE) is the leading cause of diarrhea-associated hospitalization and death in childrenyounger than 5 years of age. The WHO recommends rotavirus (RV) vaccine to be included in national routine vaccinationsprograms, the vaccines prevent 15–34% and 37–96% of severe RGE in developing and developed countries respectively. InIraq the RV vaccine (Monovalent RotaRix and pentavalent RotaTeq) was licensed in the Iraqi Extended Program of Immunization since 2014.Objectives: This study was designed to determine the protective efficacy of RV vaccine among children and to explore the effect of certain socio-demographic factors and vaccine characteristics. Vaccinees and methods: This is a cross sectional control study conducted in Baquba, the center of Diyala province during August 2018 – June 2019. A total of 406 children were enrolled as follows; 286 children as vaccinated group (those received partial or complete RV vaccine schedule plus other vaccines), 80 children as other vaccines control group (those received all other vaccines except RV vaccine), and 40 children as no vaccine control group (those received no vaccine at all). 210 children were males and 196 were females. The age range was 8-84 months. Blood and stool samples were collected from each participant on the basis of a pre-established questionnaire form. The stool rotavirus antigen and serum anti-rotavirus IgG weredetermined by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (SinoGeneClon, Biotech). The human privacy was respected by obtaining a child’s parents verbal consent. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using SPSS-25. Statistical significance was considered significant whenever the P value was equal or less than 0.05.Results: All participants were negative for RV antigen in stool. Regarding the blood tests, the results revealed that the positivityrate of anti-rotavirus IgG in the vaccinated group was 25.9% which was significantly higher compared to the positivity rate in other vaccines group 20.0% and no vaccine group 5.0% ( P=0.010) . Furthermore, within the three study groups, the mean ± SD of anti-rotavirus IgG concentration was significantly higher among positive children compared to their counterparts (P=0.0001). The RotaRix monovalent vaccine induced a significantly higher titer of anti-rotavirus IgG concentration compared to RotaTeq pentavalent vaccine (8.94±16.59 mIU/ml vs 3.33 ± 6.20 mIU/ml), (P= 0.036). The mean ± SD of antiRV IgG concentration was insignificantly peaked after 2 years post vaccination 10.62±17.92 mIU/ml, (P= 0.573). The age and gender showed insignificant effect on the mean ± SD of anti-RV IgG concentration, (P=0.381) and (P=0.863) respectively. Conclusion: About one quarter of children received RV vaccine following the universally recommended schedule had protective seropositive levels of anti-rotavirus IgG. Monovalent vaccine was more immunogenic than pentavalent irrespective of vaccine doses or duration. Keywords: Rotavirus, RotaTeq, RotaRex, Rotavirus gastroenteritis

} }