RT Book, Section
A1 Hambleton, Sophie
A2 Rudolph, Colin D.
A2 Rudolph, Abraham M.
A2 Lister, George E.
A2 First, Lewis R.
A2 Gershon, Anne A.
SR Print(0)
ID 7030144
T1 Chapter 314. Varicella-Zoster Virus Infections
T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 22e
YR 2011
FD 2011
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-149723-7
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=7030144
RD 2024/04/20
AB The  human  α-herpesvirus,  varicella-zoster  virus  (VZV),  is  a  highly  successful  pathogen  that  has  coevolved  with  its  human  hosts  over  millennia.  The  majority  of  the  world’s  population  has  experienced  primary  VZV  infection  as  varicella  (“chickenpox”),  with  the  acquisition  of  both  lifelong  immunity  against  reinfection  and  the  risk  of  viral  reactivation  as  zoster  (“shingles”).  In  most  children,  chickenpox  is  a  mild  illness  in  which  viral  replication  rapidly  subsides.  However,  severe  and  complicated  varicella  does  occur  in  previously  healthy  children  and  at  much  higher  rates  in  certain  risk  groups  (eg,  immunocompromised  persons,  adults,  newborns).  The  medical  importance  of  VZV  also  extends  to  reactivation  disease,  which  poses  a  major  societal  burden  of  morbidity  in  the  form  of  postherpetic  neuralgia,  particularly  in  elderly  individuals.  A  successful  vaccination  program  against  varicella  is  having  profound  effects  on  the  epidemiology  of  VZV  in  the  United  States.