Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of (a) changes in the number of cases of, and deaths from rotavirus (b) the number of rotavirus vaccinations given each year and (c) the cost of delivering that programme of vaccinations on an annual basis since the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in 2013.

Jane Ellison

The number of positive rotavirus laboratory reports each year since 2013 is shown in the table below. These data indicate that there has been a decrease of approximately 10,000 annual cases of rotavirus since the introduction of rotavirus immunisation in July 2013.

Table 1: The number of positive rotavirus laboratory reports recorded annually since 2013.

Source: PHE Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) laboratory reporting database

Note: *Figure to end October 2015.

Deaths from rotavirus in the United Kingdom are rare. However precise numbers of deaths are difficult to quantify accurately as mortality is usually low and reported simply as death due to gastrointestinal disease. It was previously estimated that there may have been up to three to four rotavirus associated deaths a year in England and Wales (Jit et al., 2007). Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the independent expert committee that advises the Government on immunisation, the rotavirus vaccine was introduced in July 2013. Since then, there have been no reported rotavirus-related deaths in the eligible cohort.

Immunisation against rotavirus is offered as a two dose schedule to infants at two and three months of age. The table below indicates the number of rotavirus vaccinations given by year.

Table 2: Number of general practitioner (GP) registered patients who received (a) a 1st dose and (b) a 2nd dose of rotavirus vaccine between six and 24 weeks of age.

Source: ImmForm

Note: *Although the immunisation programme was launched in July 2013, January 2014 was the first complete month where all of 25 week old cohort would have been eligible from the programme start.

In 2014/15 NHS incurred approximately £9 million delivering completed courses of rotavirus vaccination. This figure does not include the cost of the vaccine, which is procured centrally by Public Health England, and is commercially confidential.