Before the Rotavirus Vaccine: When Stomach Flu Meant IV Fluids

Parents often use the words 'stomach flu' for vomiting and diarrhea. Rotavirus was once one of the most predictable causes of severe gastroenteritis in babies and young children.

Before routine vaccination

In the pre-vaccine era, rotavirus was responsible for an estimated 410,000 physician visits, more than 200,000 emergency-department visits, and roughly 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations among U.S. children each year.

The danger was not simply diarrhea. Babies can lose fluid quickly, and severe dehydration can become an emergency.

A different kind of childhood vaccine

Rotavirus vaccine is given by mouth rather than by injection. Routine U.S. vaccination began in 2006 with the current generation of vaccines.

Hospitalizations for rotavirus gastroenteritis dropped dramatically after vaccination became routine.

What this looks like in Wahiawa

Today, parents may never know how common rotavirus hospitalization once was. A few drops of oral vaccine during infancy can be one of the least dramatic parts of a well-child visit.

That is the pattern we keep seeing in this series: the more successful prevention becomes, the easier it is to forget the disease that came before it.

— Nora Phillips, DNP, APRN Central Health | Wahiawa, Hawaii

Sources

CDC — Rotavirus Surveillance Manual. https://www.cdc.gov/surv-manual/php/table-of-contents/chapter-13-rotavirus.html