OBJECTIVES: Varicella (chickenpox) is one of the most common illness of children, most typical for the 2-6 years age group. In 2.5% of healthy children complications occur (bacterial overinfection, meningitis, meningoencephalitis, pneumonia are the most frequent complications), the infection is potentially life-threatening among healthy and might be directly life-threatening among immuncompromitted patients. Varicella can be prevented by live attenuated vaccine. According to WHO recommendation these vaccines are safe, effective and should be implemented into the recommended age-related vaccines. International guidelines recommend the vaccine, although it is not part of the obligatory vaccination schedule in Hungary, nor is covered by reimbursement. METHODS: In our research we aimed to examine the consequences of varicella. We calculated the disease of burden in Hungary by the utilization of evidences from literature, health care provision data of Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration as well as questionnaire survey. RESULTS: Direct and indirect costs of varicella-related health care provision are significant according to our analysis based on HNHIFA data and questionnaire survey. Our results showed that annually almost 1 billion HUF expenditure caused by varicella. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis determines the disease burden of varicella and emphasizes the importance of prevention. Increasing the rate of vaccination, epidemics can be held up, majority of the serious and complicated cases can be avoided, thus their provisional cost consequence can be decreased. From the societal viewpoint the costs that can be saved by vaccination are even higher as remarkable reduction can be achieved in indirect costs due to the rare, less serious and shorter duration breakthrough cases.