Table 3

Comparison of force of infection for different viruses for selected* age ranges.

Virus

Force of infection (per 100 persons per year)

Ages modeled

Study sample

Citation

Measles

20

11–17

Lit. review – misc. sources

[18]

Mumps

12

11–17

Lit. review – misc. sources

[18]

Rubella

10

11–17

Lit. review – misc. sources

[18]

Varicella

6

≥ 10

Convenience sample

[30]

CMV†

3.1 and 3.5

16–40

Hospital-based

[10]

CMV

1.8

12–49

Population-based

Current study

HSV-2

0.84

≥ 12

Population-based

[31]

Hepatitis B

0.15

6–39

Population-based

[32]

*Ages were selected to be roughly comparable with the ages we modeled; in general, young children were not selected for comparison because they often had much higher forces of infection. †Patients were recruited from 2 different hospitals.

Colugnati et al. BMC Infectious Diseases 2007 7:71   doi:10.1186/1471-2334-7-71