Incidence of Rotavirus Infection among Under-Five Children Attending Health Centres in Selected Communities of Ndola, Copperbelt Province, Zambia

Abstract

Rotavirus infection is a highly infectious public health concern among under-five children characterized mainly by diarrhoea, vomiting and fever spread through oral fecal route from contaminated water, food and objects. Diarrhoea ranks third among the common causes of mortality in Zambia among under-fives which accounts for about 9%. Statistics obtained at Ndola District Health Management Office revealed that in spite of high coverage of rotavirus vaccine, diarrhoea incidence had risen over the years from 2011 to 2015 by 32.9/1000. Currently stool is not routinely tested for rotavirus infection, making it difficult to determine its incidence and effectiveness of rotavirus vaccine (RotarixTM), an intervention that was put in place on 27th November 2013 to mitigate diarrhoea disease. The objective of this study is to determine incidence of rotavirus infection among under-fives attending health centres in selected communities of Ndola. Purposive sampling was used to select 380 under-fives aged 3 months - 36 months who presented at health facilities with diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. Stool specimen was tested for rotavirus infection using Combi-Strip Rapid Diagnostic Test. The study was conducted at specified period in time from 1st March 2017 to 28th September 2017 to determine relationships and associations among suspected variables using cross-sectional analytic community based study design. Statistical Package for Social Science software was used for data analysis. Tests used included Pearson’s Chi-square and logistic regression. Results have revealed 11% incidence rate of rotavirus infection and significant statistical association among severity categories of rotavirus infection with uptake of rotavirus vaccine (p ≤ 0.001). Children who took two recommended doses of the vaccine 185 (59.5%) were more likely to have mild category (<7 score) of rotavirus infection. In conclusion, results clearly indicate that rotavirus vaccine reduces incidence and if a child has diarrhoea it is less severe which yields good outcomes.