Impact of chickenpox on households of healthy children

There is little information available regarding the impact of varicella among healthy children. A group of 137 households, identified by the County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services, were interviewed by telephone and yielded 247 cases of varicella. There were no hospitalizations for complications. Rates for physician visits and telephone calls to health care providers were 0.5 and 1.0 per case, respectively. School days lost by cases and work days lost by well adults in the households were 8.7 and 0.5 per case, respectively. Varicella had a measurable impact of economic significance on our survey population. Our observations need to be extended and included in cost-benefit analyses of varicella vaccine.