Journal of family & reproductive health
Severe Varicella in Children Under Five Years of Age in the Context of Herd Immunity, Vaccine Hesitancy, and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil, 2008-2023
By do Nascimento MI, Valente Junior AT, de Vasconcelos Falcão B and 2 others.
Abstract
Objective
Varicella (chickenpox) is a highly contagious disease, and its vaccine was incorporated into the Brazilian National Immunization Program in 2013.
Objectives
(i) To analyze trends in hospitalization rates for severe chickenpox by age; (ii) To assess the impact of the interventions "anti-vaccine movement/vaccine hesitancy" and "COVID-19 pandemic" on hospitalization rates.
Materials and methods
Classical Time Series (CTS) and Interrupted Time Series (ITS) methods were applied to estimate the impact of the anti-vaccine movement/vaccine hesitancy (intervention-1) that occurred in 2016 and the COVID-19 pandemic (intervention-2) that began in 2020 on hospitalization rates among children under 5 years old, stratified by groups based on vaccine-ineligible (< 1 year old) and vaccine-eligible (1-4 years old) children.