Impact of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine Rotavac in the Universal Immunization Program in India during 2016–2020
Nature Medicine·
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41591-025-03998-9
- PMID
- 41057654
- PMCID
- PMC12618247
- OpenAlex
- W4414886651
- Study type
- Case-control study
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Findings from the abstract suggest Rotavac provided substantial protection against severe rotavirus disease under programmatic conditions in India, including against non-vaccine strains, and was characterized as performing comparably to internationally licensed vaccines in similar settings.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study evaluated how well an indigenous oral rotavirus vaccine (Rotavac) performed when delivered through India's national immunization program between 2016 and 2020.
Study design
A multi-site test-negative case-control analysis was conducted using hospital-based surveillance across 31 facilities in 9 Indian states between 2016 and 2020.
Population and setting
The study enrolled 24,624 children (62% male, 38% female) in hospital surveillance, with 8,372 children aged 6-59 months included in the effectiveness analysis across 9 Indian states.
Main findings
Adjusted effectiveness of three Rotavac doses against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis was 54% (95% CI 45-62%). In children aged 6-23 months, genotype-specific effectiveness was 51% for G3P[8], 81% for G1P[8], and 64% for G1P[6]. Rotavirus positivity among hospitalized children fell from 40% to 20% over the study period.
Public-health relevance
Findings from the abstract suggest Rotavac provided substantial protection against severe rotavirus disease under programmatic conditions in India, including against non-vaccine strains, and was characterized as performing comparably to internationally licensed vaccines in similar settings.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata and requires review of the original paper for decision-grade interpretation; limitations explicitly stated in the full text are not available here.
GIDS interpretation
Within the GIDS literature evidence workflow, this article represents a peer-reviewed, multi-site hospital-based evaluation of an indigenous rotavirus vaccine; the abstract itself does not contain a live surveillance signal, and no connection to current surveillance data is made here.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 14 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.