Epidemiology of Herpes Zoster in the pre-vaccination era: establishing the baseline for vaccination programme's impact in Spain.

ABSTRACT: BackgroundHerpes zoster (HZ) affects 1 in 3 persons in their lifetime, and the risk of HZ increases with increasing age and the presence of immunocompromising conditions. In Spain, vaccination guidelines were recently updated to include the recommendation of the new recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) for certain risk groups.AimTo describe the epidemiology of HZ-related hospitalisations in Spain in order to prioritise vaccination recommendations and define a baseline to monitor the effectiveness of vaccination policies.MethodsRetrospective study using the National Health System's Hospital Discharge Records Database, including all HZ-related hospitalisations from 1998 to 2018.ResultsThe 65,401 HZ-related hospitalisations, corresponded to an annual mean hospitalisation rate of 6.75 per 100,000

SUBMITTER: Risco Risco C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9951257 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature