title: Chickenpox complications, incidence and financial burden in previously healthy children and those with an underlying disease in Ankara in the pre-vaccination period.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the complications, financial burden and mortality caused by chickenpox using the data of Ankara, Turkey in the pre-vaccination period. The study was conducted as a retrospective sectional study. Of the 65 patients admitted to our hospital, 34 (52.3%) had been previously healthy, 10 (15.4%) had previous chronic disease and 21 (32.3%) were immunocompromised. The most common complications of chickenpox in those patient groups were skin and soft tissue infections (41.2%), hematological complications (50%) and gastrointestinal complications (38.1%), respectively. We found 10.6/100,000 and 8.7/100,000 rates of hospitalization due to chickenpox in Ankara for all children and for previously healthy children, respectively. The chickenpox-related mortality rate for the 0-17 age group was 3.03/1,000,000 in Ankara. In conclusion, we feel that a national vaccination program for chickenpox will lead to a significant decrease in the overall cost to our country.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Halil
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: Mehmet Onur
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Candir
authors.forename: Adem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karbuz
authors.forename: Nurşen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Belet
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tapisiz
authors.forename: Ergin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ciftçi
authors.forename: Erdal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ince
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000150:complications* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology