Junais Koleri 1 , Soopy Kayanaduth 2
BACKGROUND As the incidence of varicella in children is decreasing, the infection rate in the adults is on the rise. This study attempts to identify the all-cause-mortality and morbidity rate of varicella in adults and also the seasonal pattern of varicella infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS Varicella is diagnosed clinically. The data is recovered from case records of all the patients admitted at Government Medical College, Kozhikode, continuously over 2007 to 2012. RESULTS 640 patients were admitted with most of the cases in the age group of 20 to 40. 40% of the population belonged to above fifty years. The mean duration of hospitalisation was 21.5 days in elderly against 5 days in young patients. The mortality rate was also high in elderly (10.8% vs. 4%) The varicella epidemics peak towards January to April. CONCLUSION The duration of hospital admission and the all-cause-mortality is much high in elderly population with varicella. Hence, there should be attempts to vaccinate the susceptible elderly population. The disease peaks towards January to April; hence, resources can be planned accordingly for proper utilisation.
