Presumptive varicella vaccination is warranted in Greek adolescents lacking a history of disease or household exposure

Current practice favors serotesting adolescents with a negative history of chickenpox rather than offering presumptive vaccination. Recent epidemiologic data from Greece indicate that a high proportion of adolescents (21.5%) are susceptible to chickenpox. We assessed the reliability of negative vari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of pediatrics 2009, Vol.168 (1), p.23-25
Main Authors: Katsafadou, Alexandra, Kallergi, Konstantina, Ferentinos, George, Goulioti, Theodora, Foustoukou, Maria, Papaevangelou, Vassiliki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adults
Biological and medical sciences
Chi-square test
Chicken pox
Chickenpox - epidemiology
Chickenpox - immunology
Chickenpox - prevention & control
Chickenpox Vaccine - administration & dosage
Epidemiology
Female
General aspects
Greece - epidemiology
Health Policy
Households
Human viral diseases
Humans
Immunization
Immunoglobulin G - immunology
Immunoglobulins
Infectious diseases
Male
Mass Screening - methods
Medical sciences
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mortality
Original Paper
Pediatrics
Predictive Value of Tests
Prevalence
Prevention and actions
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Teenagers
Vaccination - statistics & numerical data
Vaccines
Viral diseases
Viral diseases with cutaneous or mucosal lesions and viral diseases of the eye
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Summary:Current practice favors serotesting adolescents with a negative history of chickenpox rather than offering presumptive vaccination. Recent epidemiologic data from Greece indicate that a high proportion of adolescents (21.5%) are susceptible to chickenpox. We assessed the reliability of negative varicella history in relation to type of exposure in 311 children and 283 adolescents. In children with social or unknown exposure to varicella, a negative history had a high negative predictive value (NPV = 73.5), supporting the clinical practice of presumptive vaccination. Conversely, children with a negative history and household exposure had a low NPV (13.8), suggesting that pre-vaccination serologic testing is warranted. In conclusion, based on our local epidemiologic data, presumptive varicella vaccination should be offered to all adolescents with the exception of the subgroup of adolescents with household exposure.
ISSN:0340-6199
1432-1076
DOI:10.1007/s00431-008-0701-6