Varicella vaccine States, mostly children, with typically 10,500–13,000 hospital admissions (range, 8,000–18,000), and 100–150 deaths each year. Though mostly children caught it, the majority of deaths (by as much as 80%) were among adults. During 2003 and the first half of 2004, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported eight deaths from varicella, six of whom were children or adolescents. These deaths and hospital admissions have substantially declined in the US due to vaccination, though the rate of shingles infection has increased as adults are less exposed to infected children (which would otherwise help protect against shingles). Ten years
Rare disease treated, are excluded from their definition. The definitions used in the medical literature and by national health plans are similarly divided, with definitions ranging from 1/1,000 to 1/200,000. Because of definitions that include reference to treatment availability, a lack of resources, and severity of the disease, the term "orphan disease" is used as a synonym for "rare disease". But in the United States and the European Union, "orphan diseases" have a distinct legal meaning. The United States' Orphan Drug Act includes both rare diseases and any non-rare diseases "for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing