Rotavirus Burden & Rotavirus Vaccination in Finland

Rotavirus incidence and rotavirus vaccination coverage from 2000 to 2021

Introduction

This tool displays the incidence of acute gastroenteritis, rotavirus gastroenteritis, and unspecified viral gastroenteritis, in Finland, along with rotavirus vaccination coverage.

The data have been retrieved from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (Terveyden ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos - THL) and are displayed until 2021 (as of the date of the publication of the webpage in April 2025). The data will be updated as warranted.

Map

Interactive Dashboard: How to Use

In the first panel, select the desired time series in the toggle bar: type of health care contact (inpatient; outpatient; total) and specificity of diagnosis (acute gastroenteritis – AGE; rotavirus gastroenteritis – RVGE; unspecified viral gastroenteritis – UVGE). Hover over the desired line (incidence or vaccination coverage) to see its respective value. In the second panel, select the desired year to observe values of RVGE incidence and vaccination coverage per Finnish region.

Definitions

Incidence

For each diagnosis category, incidence was calculated as the number of episodes among children aged 0-7 divided by the number of individuals 0-7 years of age in Finland (or by Finnish region) at the end of the corresponding year (monthly population estimates are not available). The classification of episodes was based on the registered main discharge ICD-10 codes, where:

  • Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE): ICD-10 code – A08.0
  • Unspecified viral gastroenteritis (UVGE): ICD-10 codes – A08, excluding A08.0
  • Acute gastroenteritis (AGE): ICD-10 codes – A00-A09, excluding A08.0

Vaccination Coverage

Vaccination coverage is defined as the proportion of children born in a given month who received at least 1 dose of rotavirus vaccine (before the age of 8 months), among all live births in that month (which was retrieved from Statistics Finland - Vital statistics by Area, Month and Information. PxWeb - Select table, accessed 29 May 2024).

References

Additional detail on the webtool can be found on its associated poster:

  1. Toppila I, et al. Visualization of the impact of rotavirus vaccination in Finland. Presented at: 43rd Annual Meeting of European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases; May 26-30, 2025; Bucharest, Romania.

Authorship

Medaffcon Oy was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA to conduct the current work. It was published on April 2025.