Preparing for the scale-up of rotavirus vaccine introduction in Africa: Establishing surveillance platforms to monitor disease burden and vaccine impact

Countries in Africa have begun introducing rotavirus vaccines in their national immunization programs, and wide-scale rollout across the continent is expected during the next few years. In preparation for vaccine introduction, many countries initiated surveillance for rotavirus and other studies to document disease burden, to describe the epidemiology and to monitor circulating rotavirus strains in Africa. In addition, 2 countries sought to systematically investigate cases of intussusception, a rare adverse event that has been associated with rotavirus vaccines in some settings. The ongoing surveillance provided data that will serve as a baseline against which the impact of rotavirus vaccines in Africa can be assessed.