Disease burden of herpes zoster in Korea

Won Suk Choi, Ji Yun Noh, Joong Yeon Huh, Yu Mi Jo, Jacob Lee, Joon Young Song, Woo Joo Kim, Hee Jin Cheong

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    33 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    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. Objectives: We performed this study to investigate the disease burden of herpes zoster in the Korean population as a whole. Study design: 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.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)325-329
    Number of pages5
    JournalJournal of Clinical Virology
    Volume47
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010 Apr

    Keywords

    • Disease burden
    • Herpes zoster
    • Varicella zoster virus

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Virology
    • Infectious Diseases

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