About the atlas
This animated map was the result of a study that shows the uptake in vaccination in the US rotavirus since 2006. Rotavirus, a common cause of diarrheal related medical encounters among infants and young children, routinely caused many hospitalizations and a number of deaths prior to the implementation of national vaccination. The goal of this project was to develop an animated visualization of the impact of rotavirus vaccine uptake and geographic penetration on rotavirus health outcomes over time and geography. The real-world example of rotavirus vaccines was used since it involves important parallels that can be used for monitoring the uptake and impact of other new vaccines, including those being developed for SARS-CoV-2.
The visualizations shown on this site show the rapid uptake of vaccination at the national, state, country and zip code level followed by a dramatic reduction in gastroenteritis-related medical visits over time in every state and county where robust data were available. The study also highlighted the practical use of the visualization to monitor geographic hotspots of rotavirus-related medical visits in areas where vaccination coverage was suboptimal.
For additional details, including analysis and coding methodology used this for this project, visit the publication: [T.C. Mast, D. Heyman, E. Dasbach et al. Planning for monitoring the introduction and effectiveness of new vaccines using real-word data and geospatial visualization: An example using rotavirus vaccines with potential application to SARS-CoV-2]. This project was funded by Merck & Co, Inc..