OBJECTIVE Varicella-zoster virus has been reported to produce serious, often life-threatening, disease in immunosuppressed patients with a variety of diagnoses. The impact of this virus on the young child after heart transplantation has not been reported. METHODS We reviewed the charts of 28 children who were <10 years of age at heart transplantation and had at least 1 year of follow-up. The ...

Although varicella zoster virus latency has been demonstrated in several sensory ganglia, herpes zoster usually effects only one single, either left or right, dermatome in half of the body. In immunocompromised patients, more than one contiguous unilateral dermatome may be involved. Bilateral non-contiguous herpes zoster, also termed herpes zoster duplex, is rarely reported. Chronic varicella z...

This article reviews specific clinical and research issues of herpes zoster related to geriatric medicine. Salient epidemiological and clinical issues include the increasing probability of zoster and postherpetic neuralgia with aging, age-related decline in immunity to varicella-zoster virus, the functional and psychosocial impact of zoster on the quality of life of the elderly, illness behavio...

Five months after 2 siblings were immunized with varicella vaccine, 1 developed zoster. Two weeks later the second sibling got a mild case of chicken pox. Virus isolated from the latter was found to be vaccine type. Thus, the vaccine strain was transmitted from the vaccinee with zoster to his sibling. Vaccinees who later develop zoster must be considered contagious. varicella-zoster, zoster, va...

UNLABELLED Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is responsible for both varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles). During varicella, the virus establishes latency within the sensory ganglia and can reactivate to cause herpes zoster, but the immune responses that occur in ganglia during herpes zoster have not previously been defined. We examined ganglia obtained from individuals who, at the ti...

In a search for past or present infection with herpes viruses, serum antibody titres to herpes simplex type 1 virus, cytomegalovirus, and varicella-zoster virus were measured by complement fixation test in 58 patients with achalasia. Serum was also taken from 40 age and sex matched patients without oesophageal symptoms who formed a control group. All titres were low, and those for herpes simple...

A 30-year-old pregnant woman had skin lesions at 38 weeks of gestation. She was diagnosed as primary varicella zoster infection. Her clinical symptoms were high fever and generalized vesicles eruption. No serious maternal complication was found. The patient delivered a male baby 4 days after she developed skin lesions. The neonatal blood IgM against varicella zoster was negative. The baby was g...

Primary varicella-zoster virus infection in children with haematological malignancy is a life threatening disease. In one year, there were 10 cases of varicella and 2 cases of zoster among these children as well as 5 mothers who were accompanying their children who developed varicella in the oncology ward. Two children died of fulminating disease despite aggressive antiviral and supportive trea...

Specific IgM varicella-zoster antibody was detected in "convalescent" sera from 20 out of 40 patients (50%) with herpes zoster infections. Since these were not primary infections with varicella-zoster virus, it seems that detection of IgM antibody specific for a particular virus may not differentiate a primary infection from secondary infections with that virus.

Pathogenesis Varicella and zoster are different clinical manifestations caused by the same (VZ) virus. Infection of a previously uninfected person produces varicella or in some cases an inapparent infection. Zoster is believed to result from the activation of VZ virus which has been present, but inactive, in the patient's dorsal root ganglion cells and/or his skin cells. Most are 'immune' to a ...