Disease burden of varicella versus other vaccine-preventable diseases before introduction of vaccination into the National Immunisation Programme in the Netherlands

Introduction: Estimating burden of disease (BoD) is an essential first step in the decision-making process on introducing new vaccines into national immunisation programmes (NIPs). For varicella, a common vaccine-preventable disease, BoD in the Netherlands was unknown. Aim: To assess national varicella BoD and compare it to BoD of other vaccine-preventable diseases before their introduction in the NIP. Methods: In this health estimates reporting study, BoD was expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) using methodology from the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe (BCoDE)-projec... Mehr ...