The recent introduction of a vaccine for varicella has raised questions about whether, for adults, a patient's history of varicella infection is useful in determining if vaccination is necessary. We report findings on 184 family medicine patients aged 18 to 65 years who were asked if they had a history of varicella infection and were subsequently tested for varicella antibodies. A history of in...

BACKGROUND Varicella (chickenpox) is the primary disease caused by varicella-zoster virus. It is extremely contagious and is frequent in children. Indeed, in the absence of vaccination, a high proportion of the population is liable to contract it. Herpes zoster -more frequent among adults- is caused by reactivation of the latent virus. The objective of this study is to describe the status of an...

INTRODUCTION Varicella (chickenpox) can cause serious complications and admission to hospital. Several countries included the varicella vaccine in their immunization schedules. MATERIAL AND METHODS A descriptive and retrospective study of hospitalizations due to varicella and its complications was conducted in a referral center from 2005 to 2011. RESULTS A total of 1192 children with varice...

BACKGROUND Varicella, a contagious and infectious disease that is usually benign in children, may become complicated among adults and vulnerable children and may even be life-threatening. There are effective vaccines. A retrospective study was conducted about costs and resulting hospitalizations related to this disease in the population of Aragón in the 2004-2014 period. Costs were compared to ...

Varicella (chickenpox) is an universal, highly infectious disease characterised by a pruritic vesicular eruption associated with fever and malaise caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV). In children, the illness is usually self limiting, lasting four to five days, but at least 1% of children under 15 years experience a complication. 2 These include secondary bacterial infection (particularly wi...

To the Editor: Varicella is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death among children in the developed world. Adults with a definite history of chickenpox are usually immune, and 71% to 93% of adult patients without a definite history of varicella are also seropositive. A serologic test may thus be cost-effective for determining varicella zoster virus (VZV) immunity in adults with a negativ...

Varicella in childhood is a self-limiting disease, which usually follows a benign course. However, complications, although rare, may have serious consequences. Ischaemic stroke secondary to post varicella angiopathy is a well-described complication and is estimated to account for up to a third of all strokes in infants. We present three previously healthy children who presented to our centre wi...

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies to varicella-zoster virus (VZV) were measured in sera from subjects with acute varicella and herpes zoster, VZV-immune subjects remote from infection, and recipients of a live attenuated varicella vaccine, using a solid-phase radioimmunoassay. Primary infection with VZV was associated with early production of IgA antibodies. Among 36 subjects with varicella tes...

Little is known about the pathogenic potential of individual strains in the varicella vaccine. We analyzed genomic variation among specimens obtained from vaccine recipients with postvaccination rash or herpes zoster (HZ), focusing on polymorphisms between live attenuated varicella vaccine virus and wild-type varicella-zoster virus. Eleven of 18 postvaccination HZ specimens contained >1 strain,...