Paper Information

There is currently limited evidence regarding how the rotavirus vaccine dosing schedule might be adjusted to improve vaccine performance. We quantified the impact of the previously implemented 6/10-week Rotarix vaccine (RV1) in Ghana to the model-predicted impact for other vaccine dosing schedules across three hospitals and the entire country. Compared to no vaccination, the model-estimated median percentage reductions in rotavirus ranged from 28 to 85% and 12 to 71% among children <1 and <5 years old, respectively. The median predicted reductions in rotavirus for the whole country ranged from 57 to 66% among infants <1 year and 35 to 45% among children <5 years old. The 1/6/10- and 6/10/14-week schedules provided the best and comparable reductions in rotavirus compared to the original 6/10-week schedule. A third dose could prevent an additional 9 to 14% of deaths. An additional dose of RV1 might be an effective strategy to improve rotavirus vaccine impact, particularly in settings with low vaccine effectiveness.