Increasing Incidence of Varicella Hospitalizations in United States Army and Navy Personnel: Are Today's Teenagers More Susceptible? Should Recruits Be Vaccinated?
1 From the Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit No. 5, San Diego, California
2 From the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California
3 From the Division of Preventive Medicine, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC
Hospital records for 10 687 United States Army and Navy adult varicella (chickenpox) admissions were reviewed. Annual hospital admission rates for varicells 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 vanicella admissions occurred in the most junior military members, aged 17 to 20. More than half of the total vanicella 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 vanicella susceptibility in US teenagers and young adults. Administering a safe and effective vanicella vaccine to army and navy recruits could prevent more than 7260 hospital-bed days during the first year of use.
Key Words: varicella-zoster • epidemiology • incidence • vaccine
Submitted on December 5, 1989
Accepted on January 4, 1990
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