Disease Burden

Since 2004, the Regional Office has been working with Member States in the Region of the Americas to implement hospital sentinel surveillance of rotavirus diarrheal disease, using case definitions, laboratory diagnosis, and analyses of standardized data. Thirteen countries in the Region now have sentinel surveillance and systematically send reports to PAHO. In 2008, only Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua reported their data. A total of 149,853 hospitalizations of children aged <5 years were reviewed in these countries; of these cases, 14% (20,863) had been admitted for diarrhea and of these, 57% (11,904) were classified as suspect rotavirus infection. Of the investigated cases with stool samples, 28% tested positive for rotavirus. Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname have discontinued reporting data to PAHO since 2008. The data produced by this reporting network are currently being fed into a global database for the consolidation of information.