VARICELLA AND ZOSTER Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is the cause of two diseases, varicella (chickenpox), which is a primary infection, and zoster (shingles), a secondary infection caused by reactivation of latent VZV.1 In the United States, vancella is typically an ifiness of children under the age of 10 years; 5% to 10% of adults remain susceptible. Varicella is a systemic infection that stimul...

BACKGROUND Being highly contagious by person-to-person transmission, varicella can easily spread within the multinational population of a cruise ship and into communities ashore. The aim of the study was to report the prevalence of varicella infections in a fleet of cruise ships during a two-year period and to discuss measures to prevent and contain shipboard outbreaks. MATERIAL AND METHODS A...

BACKGROUND The safety and efficacy of live-attenuated varicella zoster virus (VZV) vaccines in preventing varicella and reducing associated morbidity and mortality in real-world have been previously shown. In Poland, VZV vaccination is only mandatory for certain high-risk individuals. Here, we have conducted an evaluation of the clinical and economic burden of varicella in Poland. METHODS Mul...

Objective: To evaluate the direct medical cost of hospital admissions for patients with varicella (i.e., chickenpox) to assess the cost burden of varicella from a health care perspective for ultimate use in health economics studies in Turkey. Methods: Records of children hospitalized with varicella at the Bakirkoy Maternity and Children’s Hospital between November of 2006 and June of 2011 were ...

BACKGROUND Varicella is a highly infectious disease with a significant public health and economic burden, which can be prevented with childhood routine varicella vaccination. Vaccination strategies differ by country. Some factors are known to play an important role (number of doses, coverage, dosing interval, efficacy and catch-up programmes), however, their relative impact on the reduction of ...

BACKGROUND Sera from children with post-varicella infections have autoantibodies that react with centrosomes in brain and tissue culture cells. We investigated the sera of children with infections and post-varicella ataxia and related conditions for reactivity to five recombinant centrosome proteins: gammagamma-enolase, pericentrin, ninein, PCM-1, and Mob1. METHODS Sera from 12 patients with ...

Background: The authors sought to monitor the impact of widespread varicella vaccination on the epidemiology of varicella and herpes zoster. While varicella incidence would be expected to decrease, mathematical models predict an initial increase in herpes zoster incidence if re-exposure to varicella protects against reactivation of the varicella zoster virus. Methods: In 1998–2003, as varicella...

QUESTION UNDER STUDY In Switzerland, vaccination against varicella is not recommended in the basic immunisation schedule. However, for individuals aged 11-40 years who do not have a reliable varicella history the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health recommends either (i) a vaccination or (ii) a serology test and vaccination of those with a negative result. In the Travel Clinic of the Universit...

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the cause of varicella and zoster, is divided into five major clades and four provisional clades, the latter of which have been rarely reported worldwide to date. We present a varicella outbreak by the provisional clade VI within an Indian couple in Germany returning from a trip to Amsterdam. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of varicella by the ...

Herpes zoster arises from reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), causing varicella in children. As reactivation occurs when cell-mediated immunity (CMI) declines, and there is evidence that re-exposure to VZV boosts CMI, mass varicella immunization might increase the zoster burden, at least for some decades. Fear of this natural zoster boom is the main reason for the paralysis of var...