Proportion of children under 5 years of age diagnosed with rotavirus, Canada, 2010
![](https://cichprofile.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/6.6.10_final_revised_Rotovirus.png)
Source: CICH graphic created using using an image from Shutterstock and data adapted from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. An Advisory Committee Statement (ACS). Statement on the Recommended Use of Pentavalent Human-Bovine Reassortant Rotavirus Vaccine. Canadian Disease Weekly Report. January 2008 • Volume 34 • ACS-1 and National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). An Advisory Committee Statement (ACS): Updated Statement on the use of Rotavirus Vaccines.
Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis. The virus is spread by the fecal-oral route. It can be spread by contaminated hands, objects (such as toys), food and water. Children are most likely to get rotavirus in the winter and spring.1
In 2010, it was estimated that rotavirus was responsible for 10% to 40% of all gastroenteritis among children.
Canadian data indicate that rotavirus gastroenteritis results in significant use of the health care system. 36% of children with rotavirus see a doctor, 15% visit an emergency department, and 7% are hospitalized. Rotavirus is responsible for the majority of hospitalizations due to gastroenteritis – estimated between one in 62 and one in 312 children under 5 years of age.2,3
Household transmission of rotovirus is common, and there is some evidence that crowded living conditions contribute.4 Improved sanitation alone is not sufficient to prevent the infection as rotovirus is spread by oral-fecal contact, a common behaviour among young children.
1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rotavirus. https://www.cdc.gov/rotavirus/index.html-accessed May 22, 2017.
2National Advisory Committee on Immunization. An Advisory Committee Statement (ACS). Statement on the Recommended Use of Pentavalent Human-Bovine Reassortant Rotavirus Vaccine. Canadian Disease Weekly Report. January 2008 • Volume 34 • ACS-1.
3National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). An Advisory Committee Statement (ACS): Updated Statement on the use of Rotavirus Vaccines. Canadian Communicable Disease Report. July 2010 • Volume 36 • ACS-4
4Henry F and Bartholomew RK. Epidemiology and transmission of rotavirus infections and diarrhoea in St. Lucia, West Indies. West Indian Med J. 1990 Dec;39(4):205-12.