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Seasonality in China linked to varicella, herpes zoster incidence
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An increase in ambient temperature was associated with a decrease in outpatient visits for varicella and an increase in outpatient visits for herpes zoster, according to recent data.
“Our results demonstrated that temperature variation might be an important risk factor for varicella and herpes zoster in China,” researcher Yingying Yang, PhD, of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and colleagues wrote. “Higher temperature and lower temperature is beneficial to the prevention of varicella and herpes zoster, respectively.”
Yang and colleagues collected data from 3,520 patients with varicella and 6,614 patients with herpes zoster at a Shanghai hospital to investigate associations between ambient temperature and outpatient visits for each disease, controlling for humidity, seasonal trends and day of the week.
The researchers determined that an increase in daily mean temperature of 1°C was associated with a 1.33% decrease (95% CI, 0.93%-1.74%) in outpatient visits for varicella and a 2.18% increase (95% CI, 1.9%-2.46%) in outpatient visits for herpes zoster.
They said their study results were comparable with previous reports.
“The seasonality of varicella incidence with a peak in cold months has been widely reported in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan and Taiwan,” Yang and colleagues wrote. “In contrast, herpes zoster occurs most frequently in the summer. The observed seasonality suggested that meteorological factors might play important roles in the epidemiology of these diseases.” – by Will Offit
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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