Deaths From Rotavirus Disease in Bangladeshi Children

BACKGROUND: To assess the potential health benefits of introducing new rotavirus (RV) vaccines, we estimated mortality from RV gastroenteritis in Bangladeshi children <5 years of age. METHODS: We examined data from ongoing diarrhea surveillance in a systematic 2% sample (4% until 1995) of patients visiting the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka Hospital during 1993-2004 and all patients visiting the rural Matlab Hospital during 2000-2004. To estimate deaths from RV, we multiplied the proportion of diarrhea visits attributable to RV with 2004 estimates of diarrhea deaths in Bangladeshi children. RESULTS: At Dhaka Hospital, RV was detected in 33% of 18,300 children with diarrhea. The proportion of diarrhea attributable to RV nearly doubled during 2002-2004 compared with 1993-1995 (42%…