The Incidence and Prevalence of Common Variable Immunodeficiency Disease in Taiwan, A Population-Based Study

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is one of the primary immunodeficiency diseases that occur in both children and adults. We present here a nationwide, population-based epidemiological study of CVID across all ages in Taiwan during 2002–2011. Using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 279.06, cases of CVID were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database from January 2002 to December 2011. Age- and sex-specific incidence and prevalence rates were calculated. A total of 47 new cases of CVID during 2002–2011 were identified. Total prevalence rose from 0.13 per 100,000 in 2002 to 0.28 per 100,000 in 2011. The annual incidence rate during 2002–2011 was 0.019 per 100,000. Cases were equally distributed between males and females and males mostly occurred in younger patients. This nationwide population-based study showed that the incidence and prevalence of CVID in Taiwan were lower than that in Western countries.