It has been estimated that varicella complications occur in 5% to 10% of healthy children. Complications include skin and soft tissue infections, group A streptococcal infections, otitis media, pneumonia, and encephalitis. Between 0.2% and 1.5% of Canadian children with varicella are admitted to hospital. Maternal varicella during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy can lead to congeni...

Varicella-zoster virus can cause a distinct congenital syndrome, a potentially fatal neonatal infection and life-threatening maternal illness. Physicians can reduce morbidity from these conditions by advising nonimmune pregnant women to avoid exposure to chickenpox and herpes zoster and, when indicated, by promptly administering varicella-zoster immune globulin. When prevention fails, acyclovir...

Chickenpox is usually a mild, self-limiting disease of childhood. It is highly contagious and causes a vesicular rash. Complications are seen in approximately one per cent of cases and infection of pregnant women can cause congenital varicella syndrome and neonatal varicella. There are approximately 240,000 cases of chickenpox in Australia each year, leading to approximately 1500 hospitalisatio...

Varicella and herpes zoster during pregnancy has been associated with birth defects, neonatal varicella, herpes zoster in newborns and infants. The aim of the present study was to determine the consequences for the neonates, whose mothers were closely exposed to varicella zoster virus (VZV) during pregnancy. Fifty six pregnant women with uncertain histories of prior VZV infection, after a close...

INDIAN PEDIATRICS 653 VOLUME 43JULY 17, 2006 pole of the right orbital globe with thinning of the optic nerve and atrophy of extraocular muscles. The CT features were suggestive of sequelae of an infarct involving right internal carotid artery (Fig. 2). The patient’s specific IgG antibody (by ELISA) against varicella, obtained on 2 occasions two months apart showed rising titres. Specific IgM v...

Congenital varicella syndrome encompasses a broad spectrum of malformations present in children of mothers who developed chickenpox during the first 20 weeks of gestation. We report a case of a monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy, with maternal exposure to chickenpox during the thirteenth week of gestation, which produced one symptomatic and one healthy child.

OBJECTIVE Routine varicella zoster vaccination for children aged 18 months began in Australia from November 2005. The aim of this study was to compare the current incidence and outcomes of congenital and neonatal varicella in Australia with similarly collected data from 1995 to 1997. METHODS Active national prospective surveillance was carried out for congenital and neonatal varicella using t...