Background.

Varicella surveillance is necessary to identify as cases as well as outbreaks of this viral disease, in order to take control measures to decrease its incidence.

Objective:

To describe epidemic behavior of varicella between 2010-2014 at the department of Casanare (Colombia).

Methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study from the notification registries of the event to the public health surveillance system (Sivigila) at the department. Confirmed cases were filtered and compiled to be in turn analyzed with descriptive statistics using Microsoft Excel® 2013, to get relative, trend and dispersion measures.

Results:

2 949 individual cases of varicella were notified, with mean age 16.2 ± 12.7 years; 1 540 (52.2 %) were male. Most affected group was 15-44 yr. (1 261 cases; 42.8 %); by cities/towns, Yopal reported 1 200 cases (40.7 %); by residence locations, urban was more frequent, with 2 395 cases (81.2 %). Incidence rate on average was 175.9 cases per 100 000; lethality was 0.1 % (2/2 949).

Conclusions.

Frequency distribution of varicella between 2011-2014 suggests the greatest affliction in economically active population of both sexes located in the main city or in towns' urban areas, and also suggests lack of opportunity with primary health care measures. Given varicella's high epidemic power, it is recommended to maintain and to strengthen vaccination, surveillance, prevention and control actions, as well as established case management through personal hygiene and temporal isolation.

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