OBJECTIVES: Since the introduction of the Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) vaccine on the Irish national immunisation programme in 2016 almost 2,000 RVGE hospitalisations have been avoided with a direct economic impact of €3.7 million between December 2016 and November 2020 (Murphy et al 2023). National inpatient data shows prior to this RVGE accounted for 16% of all intestinal infectious diseases amongst children under 5. However, such data can be subject to misclassification or miscoding leaning towards underreporting. Therefore this paper examines hospitalisation trends for all intestinal infectious diseases (ICD-10-AM A00-A09) and the associated economic impact since the introduction of the RVGE vaccine amongst children under 5 in Ireland.

METHODS: National data from all Irish public hospitals is examined and an Interrupted Times Series Analysis (ITSA) compares all hospitalisations for intestinal infectious diseases (ICD-10-AM A00-A09) amongst children under 5 years, pre- and post-vaccine introduction. Costs are estimated and ITSA results are compared to the counterfactual to estimate the economic impact, from a health care providers perspective.

RESULTS: Annual hospitalisations for all intestinal infectious diseases amongst under 5s, declined by 43% when comparing the three years prior to the four years post the introduction of the RVGE vaccine on the national immunisation programme. In terms of the costs of this, the analysis estimates total hospitalisation costs for all intestinal infectious diseases reduced by 45% on average, from an average annual cost of €9.1 million in the three years prior to the introduction of the RVGE vaccine on the national immunisation programme to an average annual cost of €5 million for the four years post.

CONCLUSIONS: Since the introduction of RVGE vaccination there has been a reduction in hospitalisations for all intestinal infectious diseases amongst children under 5 in Ireland, signalling the potential for significant cost savings for the Irish healthcare system.