A retrospective survey on herpes zoster disease burden and characteristics in Beijing, China

Little data are available on the overall incidence and characteristics of herpes zoster (HZ) in China, thus a community-based retrospective survey was conducted during December 2012 to March 2013 to collect HZ incident data over the past year in selected districts of Beijing, China. A total of 237 incident HZ cases were identified from 118,220 residents and majority of HZ patients (219/237, 92.4%) sought healthcare. Annual HZ incident rates were 1.90/1000 after adjusted and higher among females (2.4/1000) than males (1.7/1000). HZ rates increased with age and with a sharply rise among those aged ≥50 years particular for female. 217 cases were available for interview with 193 (88.9%) primary, 24 (11.1%) recurrent and 10 (4.6%) postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) cases respectively. No difference was shown between the primary and recurrent HZ cases in sex (P = 0.42), age (P = 0.72), times of healthcare seeking (P = 0.45), number of dermatome (P = 0.72), pain degree (P = 0.54), and hospitalization (P = 1.0). According to the survey, it can be speculated that disease burden of HZ is serious and caused at least 2.77 million cases annually in China. The recurrent HZ cases has similar characteristics to primary HZ cases. High proportion of healthcare seeking reminds that HIS records would be a feasible source for HZ surveillance to evaluate the trends and changes in China.