Rotavirus is a highly infectious disease that usually affects babies and young children. Globally, it is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among infants. In fact, the virus is so ubiquitous that the Centre for Disease Control in the US estimated that prior to rotavirus vaccination programs starting, almost all U.S children were infected with rotavirus before their 5th birthday.

The effects of the virus, mainly watery diarrhoea sometimes accompanied by vomiting, tummy ache and fever; might not sound too bad for adults. However, diarrhoea in infants can quickly lead to extreme dehydration and other complications. As many as 1 in 10 children who contract rotavirus will end up in hospital as a result of the disease. In 2013, the WHO estimated that rotavirus caused around 215,000 deaths in children younger than 5 years old during.

A safe and effective oral vaccine became available in the UK in 2013 after which rotavirus cases reduced by 69%. The vaccine is free of charge and delivered in two doses at 8 and 12 weeks of age. The introduction of the vaccine also presented researchers with a good opportunity to measure and quantify the effects of vaccination on the incidence of rotavirus.

This month we talk to Dr Dan Hungerford, an Epidemiology Research Fellow at IGH. Dan is an infectious disease epidemiologist and surveillance scientist who previously worked for Public Health England in infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigation. Now his research focuses on using “real world” big data for vaccine evaluations and effectiveness studies.