Low varicella-related consultation rate in the Netherlands in primary care data.

Background: In the Netherlands, a relatively low varicella disease burden compared to other European countries is observed within routine surveillance. To validate this, we estimated the varicella-related consultation rate using The Integrated Primary Care Information database.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, varicella patients in 2006-2008 were identified by the International Classification of Primary Care (A72) and free text in the electronic medical records, and manually reviewed to be categorised as 'varicella' or 'probable varicella'.