Nosocomial rotavirus infection: An up to date evaluation of European studies

Abstract

Rotavirus (RV) is worldwide considered as the most important viral agent of acute gastroenteritis in children less than 5 y. Since 2006, the availability of anti-RV vaccines has deeply modified the incidence and economic burden of RV infection. In Europe, some countries have introduced an anti-RV vaccination program in the last 10 y. Although community acquired RV (CARV) disease is the most studied condition of RV infection, recently some authors have highlighted the importance of nosocomial RV (nRV) disease as an emerging public health issue. The aim of this review is to summarize the epidemiology of both CARV and nRV, in order to discuss the difficulty of a clear evaluation of the burden of the disease in absence of comparable data. In particular, we focused our attention to European studies regarding nRV in terms of divergences related to definition, report of incidence rate and methodological issues.