Varicella seroprevalence in individuals with a negative or unknown varicella history – results from a large Travel Clinic in Switzerland between 2008 and 2015

In Switzerland, vaccination against varicella is not recommended in the basic immunisation schedule. However, for individuals aged 11-40 years who do not
have a reliable varicella history the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health recommends to either (i) vaccinate or to (ii) perform a serology and vaccinate those with a negative result. In the Travel Clinic of the University of Zurich the second strategy is followed.
In this study we retrospectively assess the overall percentage of individuals with varicella-specific antibodies despite a negative history and we examined the influence of age, number of siblings, order of siblings, age difference to siblings and nationality on varicella seropositivity.