Disease burden of herpes zoster in Korea.
BACKGROUND
The occurrence of herpes zoster can deteriorate the quality of life considerably, resulting in high disease burden. While Korea is assumed to have high disease burden of herpes zoster, there has been no researches analyzing this.


OBJECTIVE
We performed this study to investigate the disease burden of herpes zoster in the Korean population as a whole.


METHODS
We used the database of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service of Korea and analyzed the data of patients who had herpes zoster as a principal diagnosis during the period from 2003 to 2007. We investigated the annual prevalence, rate of clinical visits, rate of hospitalization, and the pattern of medical services use. The socioeconomic burden of herpes zoster was calculated by a conversion into cost.


RESULTS
Rates of clinic visits and hospitalizations due to herpes zoster during the 5-year period from 2003 to 2007 were 7.93-12.54 per 1000 population and 0.22-0.32 per 1000 population, respectively. Prevalence rates according to age increased sharply after 50 years and reached a peak at 70 years. The total socioeconomic cost of herpes zoster was $75.9-143.8 million per year, increasing every year by 14-20%.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a heavy socioeconomic burden due to herpes zoster in Korea and indicate that appropriate policies need to be established to reduce this burden. Additional researches are also necessary to assess the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a herpes zoster vaccine in the Korean population.
Choi
Won Suk
WS
Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Noh
Ji Yun
JY
Huh
Joong Yeon
JY
Jo
Yu Mi
YM
Lee
Jacob
J
Song
Joon Young
JY
Kim
Woo Joo
WJ
Cheong
Hee Jin
HJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D006562:Herpes Zoster / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult