title: Increasing incidence of varicella hospitalizations in United States Army and Navy personnel: are today's teenagers more susceptible? Should recruits be vaccinated?
abstract: Hospital records for 10,687 United States Army and Navy adult varicella (chickenpox) admissions were reviewed. Annual hospital admission rates for varicella increased more than fourfold in the active-duty army during 1980 to 1988 and more than 18-fold among active-duty navy enlisted personnel during 1975 to 1988. Fifty-seven percent of varicella admissions occurred in the most junior military members, aged 17 to 20. More than half of the total varicella admissions occurred in personnel with less than a year of military service. Multivariate analysis of the navy data confirmed increasing time-related trends of risk, suggesting a national temporal trend of increased varicella susceptibility in US teenagers and young adults. Administering a safe and effective varicella vaccine to army and navy recruits could prevent more than 7260 hospital-bed days during the first year of use.
authors: Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit No. 5, San Diego, California.
authors: G C
authors: GC
authors: Gray
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Palinkas
authors: P W
authors: PW
authors: Kelley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014611:Vaccination