BACKGROUND Varicella can be a severe illness in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children. The licensed, live attenuated varicella vaccine is safe and immunogenic in HIV-infected children with minimal symptoms and good preservation of CD4(+) T cells (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunologic category 1). METHODS To study the safety and immunogenicity of this vaccine in...

BACKGROUND: Varicella vaccine was licensed in the United States in 1995 for individuals $12 months of age. A second dose was recommended in the United States in June 2006. Varicella incidence and vaccine effectiveness were assessed in a 14-year prospective study conducted at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. METHODS: A total of 7585 children vaccinated with varicella vaccine in their secon...

In Germany, routine childhood varicella vaccination was implemented in 2004 with two doses recommended since 2009. We used an immunisation information system based on countrywide health insurance claims data to analyse vaccine effectiveness (VE) and factors influencing VE. We applied proportional hazard models to estimate VE under various conditions and compared the risk of acquiring varicella ...

Vaccination against chickenpox causes a varicella-like rash in up to 5% of healthy children and 50% of children with leukemia. The vaccine may establish latency and reactivate to cause herpes zoster, albeit more rarely than wild-type virus. All vaccine preparations are composed of a mixture of varicella-zoster virus strains that show genotypic variation at several loci. We have shown, by DNA se...

BACKGROUND Monovalent varicella vaccines have been available in the Veneto Region of Italy since 2004. In 2006, a single vaccine dose was added to the immunisation calendar for children aged 14 months. ProQuad®, a quadrivalent measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine, was introduced in May 2007 and used, among other varicella vaccines, until October 2008. This study aimed to evaluate the effecti...

In this issue of the Journal, Shapiro and colleagues present data from a casecontrolled study of the effectiveness of 2 doses of varicella vaccine during the first several years after implementation of a routine 2-dose recommended schedule. At 98.3%, the effectiveness of the 2-dose schedule is welcome news indeed. These data validate the calculations of experts from the Centers for Disease Cont...

OBJECTIVE To determine if reductions in medically-attended pediatric varicella and herpes zoster occurred in Ontario, Canada, after publicly-funded varicella immunization was implemented in 2004. METHODS For fiscal years (FY) 1992-2011, we examined data on varicella and herpes zoster physician office visits, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations (including for varicella-associate...

On 16 and 17 November 2006, the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS) hosted a workshop on varicella-zoster virus (VZV) disease. The workshop was aimed at presenting the latest information on the clinical, epidemiological, and diagnostic aspects of both primary varicella (‘chickenpox’) and herpes zoster (HZ or ‘shingles’) both in Aust...

In a cooperative agreement starting January 1995, prior to the FDA's licensure of the varicella vaccine on March 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded the Los Angeles Department of Health Services' Antelope Valley Varicella Active Surveillance Project (AV-VASP). Since only varicella case reports were gathered, baseline incidence data for herpes zoster (HZ) or shingles ...

In February 1999, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) expanded recommendations for varicella (chickenpox) vaccine to promote wider use of the vaccine for susceptible children and adults. The updated recommendations include establishing child care and school entry requirements, use of the vaccine following exposure and for outbreak control, use of the vaccine for some childre...