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The one-dose vaccination schedule reduced the incidence of varicella zoster infection by about 90% after its introduction in 1996. Now, researchers have used CDC case-based surveillance data to describe changes in varicella incidence in the United States between the end of the one-dose vaccine schedule program (2005–2006) and the most recent years of the subsequent two-dose schedule (2013–2014).
Results were as follows:
Passive reporting by states increased by 48% (from 27 states in 2005 to 40 states in 2014).
The annual incidence of varicella declined by an average of 85%, from 25 to 4 per 100,000.
All age groups, including those too young to be vaccinated, demonstrated declines in incidence; the greatest reductions were in school-age children…